Parallel Lines
by Itachi's Husband
Summary: [AU] To Kisame Hoshigaki, Itachi Uchiha has it all; a lavish downtown apartment, a nice car, and a well paying job whereas he himself has nothing. No home, no job, and no prospects. But when their paths cross, Kisame comes to realize that beneath the surface, Itachi has everything to lose while Kisame himself has everything to gain. It just depends on how you look at it.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: I started this story in September of 2014 and revisited it in October 2014. It has been rewritten 1 1/2 times (and yes, that is possible) and changed one other time, but not entirely re-written. Long story short, it may be subject to change in the near future. We'll see. (That, and I don't know how this story is gonna end yet...heh heh... *sheepish head scratch*)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in the Naruto universe. All rights belong to Masashi Kishimoto, the rightful creator.

* * *

"Hey," Kisame greeted Miru when she walked in, "how was work?"

"It was fine." She replied. Her voice had her usual pitch, but carried a sad undertone to it.

Kisame watched her walk past the living room where he was watching TV. Her face held a small smile, but her eyes were downcast as though she were thinking about something.

"Bad day?" Kisame asked when she sat next to him on the couch, still clad in her work attire.

Miru smiled and pushed a long lock of hair out of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. "No." She said, shaking her head. "It was fine, Kisame, really."

Really, it was fine.

Turning to face her, Kisame thought about further prodding her about her day at work, but decided against it and turned to face the TV again. "What about your plans? How did they go?"

Miru told him that she would be late coming home after work as she had plans of some sort. She didn't explain what those plans were and Kisame didn't ask because it was none of his business what she did after work. She graciously allowed Kisame to share her apartment with her and in turn, he tried to keep his head out of her business as much as possible.

From beside him, she sighed and turned to face him this time. "Kisame, can I talk to you about something?"

Immediately he turned the TV off and turned to face her. Although he tried not to butt into her personal life, the tables were turned when she brought it up herself. "Of course!" He said.

Miru's entire expression was sad now; even the slight smile she held when she walked in was gone now. She lowered her head, her hair falling from her shoulders and enveloping her grim expression as she traced circles into the couch with her finger. "So…" She started.

"Hm-hm," Kisame hummed, leaning closer to hear her properly.

"So you know that my boyfriend and I have been dating for a few months now, right?"

"Yeah…?" Kisame was at a loss. He wasn't sure where she was going with this, but it didn't sound good.

Miru bit her lip and looked at the blank television screen. "Well…"

Kisame took her hand in his and offered her a warm smile. "It's okay. Whatever it is, you can tell me. Did he dump you? If he did, I can give him a piece of my mind if you want—"

"He wants to move in." She said, stopping him mid-sentence.

The room was silent for a moment. "Okay." Kisame said. "I'm fine with it; I don't know why you were so worried about telling me." Miru was looking at him now, but her expression hadn't changed. "Are you in love with someone else and don't want to tell him? Is that it?"

"No, not at all," she interjected and cast her gaze towards the floor. "Kisame, you're such a sweet guy, and I don't want to hurt your feelings, but I'm not sure how to say this."

"Just say it. Don't mind me. I'm a big boy, I can handle it." He said, putting up a brave front on the outside, when in reality, he had no idea where she was going with this, and was scared to know what would leave her mouth next.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure." He said.

Miru sighed. "I'm asking you to move back in with Fuguki, above the auto-shop."

Fuguki Suikazan, the owner of Suikazan Auto-Repair Shop, was Kisame's boss, the person who had given Kisame a place to live above his auto-shop and a job which would pay his rent while there. Although Suikazan (Miru was the only person Kisame knew who preferred to call him by his first name) assured him that he could live there for as long as he paid rent, Kisame had only planned for it to be a temporary residence until he found some place else so as not to burden Suikazan. Over time, however, Kisame grew accustomed to living above the auto-shop, which saved him the money of commuting to work back and forth until he met Miru, a childhood friend of his from when they were still in school.

"It's nothing against you, Kisame," Miru explained, pulling him out of his thoughts, "it's just that, it would be awkward, living with my boyfriend and another man, you know?"

Kisame quickly nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I get it." He said. Now it was his turn to look at the floor to avoid Miru's pleading eyes. "I guess I'll call Suikazan then." He said, pulling himself to stand.

"Wait, Kisame," She said, and took hold of his forearm before he could walk away, "you don't have to leave tonight. Or tomorrow. Just...just ask Suikazan about it tomorrow, okay? I don't want you living on the streets again."

Kisame cracked a smile and tugged his arm free of Miru's loose hold. "Alright," he said. "I'll wait until tomorrow." And took a seat on the couch again to resume watching TV. "Wanna watch something with me?" He asked Miru, who still seemed to be hanging on her own words.

"Well, I need to grade some papers, but I suppose I can do that while watching TV with you." She said, and stood up to leave. Before she exited the room, she looked over her shoulder and asked, "Are you sure it's okay, Kisame?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine. I'll ask Suikazan if I can move in with him again tomorrow morning. No big deal." He said.

"Okay," She said, and offered him a small smile. "Thanks for understanding, Kisame."

"Any time." He answered back.

* * *

I hope you all enjoyed it. This is probably the longest story I have as of yet (and yes, there is more to come that's already been written, but as I already stated (I think) it's not finished; I do not yet know how this thing will end)

The characters with names are all canon - *possible spoiler alert* Miru was one of the members of the intelligence team Kisame was guarding when they were attacked by Ibiki's squad, and Fuguki Suikazan was the previous owner of Samehada.

Until we meet again (which, I believe, will be fairly soon)


	2. Chapter 2

And now...the very much anticipated chapter 2 of Parallel Lines!

...

Not really. Y'all are probably like "whatever." But hear me out - once you read this chapter, it is my hope that you will see the worth in this story and continue to read, cheering me on until the very end!

...*crickets chirping*

Maybe not. But it is my hope that once you'll read this chapter, you'll start to see the direction that this story is heading...at least maybe a little...?

* * *

"Alright gentlemen, I have an order of pasta." announced the server when he approached their table, glancing between the two men seated.

Itachi Uchiha raised his hand halfway to indicate that the order was his. The server smiled and lifted the ceramic plate from his tray and onto the black lacquer finish of the table. "And the tilapia?"

"Right here." Sasuke Uchiha gestured.

"I'll be around to check up on you later, until then, enjoy your food!" He smiled, holding the serving tray between his forearm and his side.

The men offered a quiet "thanks" in return and reached out for their glasses.

"A toast," Itachi smiled, holding up his glass, "to my little brother, who, after seven years of hard work, has graduated law school and passed his bar exam."

Sasuke's lips quirked into a half-smile as he brought his glass to Itachi's with a soft "clink." "Cheers." Sasuke said and took a sip, savoring the bubbling liquid that tickled the insides of his throat and the buzz that came over him not long after. He glanced at Itachi sitting across from him, bringing his own glass away from his lips and setting it gently on the table.

"I'm surprised you're actually drinking." Sasuke commented, unraveling his utensils from the black napkin that bound them together.

"It's a special occasion." He said and turned around to fish something from out of his jacket.

He had just pierced a neatly cut square of tilapia with the tines of his fork when Itachi produced a small black box that took up the palm of his hand. He took the box gingerly, a smile playing at the corners of his lips as he looked up at Itachi who simply smiled and nodded towards the box.

"It's a black dial stainless steel chronograph watch." Itachi explained when it was clear that Sasuke had nothing to say. "And it's water resistant up to 100 meters, though I doubt you'll go scuba diving anytime soon." He added.

Before he knew it, he was engulfed in a rare, but appreciated hug from Sasuke. "Thanks, Itachi!" He said, taking his seat. He gently pried the treasure from its confines, careful not to damage it. "How much—"

Itachi held up a hand to silence him before he could finish the rest his sentence. "It's expensive, trust me."

Sasuke obviously had no qualms, already freeing his wrist from the worn watch that might have belonged to their father at one point in favor for the new one, and shoved it into his pocket. "Have I told you that you're the best brother ever?"

"Not recently, no," Itachi said, sticking his fork into the mound of pasta on his plate. "but you can thank me later; for now, let's eat before the food gets too cold."

Sasuke nodded in agreement, drooling not over his plate, but over his new watch.

Itachi couldn't help but smile at the spectacle before him. Sasuke looked so much like he did when he was younger, examining their mother's jewelry, mesmerized by its shine, and disappointed when Mikoto gently pried it from his hands, explaining that jewelry was for women.

The same event replayed before his eyes as Sasuke examined something that he could call his own and could wear with pride on his first day in court.

"Sasuke," Itachi said, midway through their dinner. "I'm proud of you."

"You said." Sasuke replied and bowed his head to concentrate on his meal once more.

Itachi watched, having eaten his fair share of food already, until Sasuke had finished chewing to ask him a question that had been on his mind all day. "So," he started, gaining his brother's attention, "where are you going to go from here?"

Sasuke stared at him blankly for a moment and shrugged. "I dunno. I guess we're going to hit up whatever bar we find that looks halfway decent—"

"I wasn't talking about your plans after this," Itachi sighed, "I meant, now that you're done with school, what are you going to do next?"

The younger man nodded in understanding and gazed out into the crowd of people to the right of him, where no doubt other families were celebrating their child's graduation with a fancy dinner. "I'm going to rent an apartment." He answered easily, picking up his glass.

That wasn't quite the answer that Itachi was expecting. He sat still, staring at Sasuke as if he was waiting to realize that he'd heard him incorrectly. When Itachi asked what he meant, Sasuke offered him the same answer he'd heard the first time. "Sasuke,"

"Before you say anything, hear me out first." Sasuke interrupted. Itachi obeyed, pursing his lips together to keep from saying anything more and sat back in his chair. "It's an efficiency apartment, five hundred square ft.; the rent is $945 a month and there's only a $200 deposit fee. And it's half an hour outside the city." He explained.

"You researched this?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Yes, because I knew you'd disapprove."

He didn't disapprove per se. He knew the day would come when Sasuke moved out and found a place of his own, but he didn't expect that day to be so soon. "Sasuke, I don't think you understand how hard it is to live on your own." Sasuke groaned and Itachi continued. "It's not like campus housing where you pay a fee at the beginning of the school year and you're done with it; you have to pay rent every month, along with your utility bill, your grocery bill, and then there's your car insurance, car maintenance, gas – and what about your job? You don't even have a job lined up, do you?"

"I do have a job lined up." Sasuke answered tersely.

"You do?" It didn't surprise him. If Sasuke had time to look for an apartment, he probably already looked into the job market. When Sasuke didn't elaborate further, Itachi asked "tell me about it."

"My job at the athletic store." He explained, pushing the remnants of the coconut rice that was served with his entrée to the side of the plate. When Itachi started to protest, Sasuke continued. "I already have a lot of money saved up and now that I'm done with school, I can pick up a few more shifts until I can find a job that pays better."

Itachi brought his hand up to his eyes and sighed. "Just because you're done with school doesn't mean that I'm kicking you out, Sasuke, you know that right? You can stay with me until you find a _salaried_ job and have enough money saved up to be able to afford living on your own."

Though his tone was exasperated, his explanation was gentle. And even though he tried his best to keep from sounding confrontational, Sasuke immediately took the defensive. "Okay. Answer this for me, then, Itachi. How is what I'm doing now any different from what you did when you finished college?" He challenged.

During Itachi's senior year of college, he'd applied for an internship that eventually offered him a job – weeks before he even graduated. In that time, he'd researched various apartments for low prices in the area close to his future place of work. As a graduation gift, his father paid the security deposit and first month's rent, insisting that it was the right decision.

"That was different," Itachi sighed, "you know that." When he looked up to meet Sasuke's accusatory gaze, he knew he'd have to give a more detailed explanation. "I had a salaried job lined up _three hours _away from home. What other choice did I have? Pass up the opportunity and move back home until I found another opportunity?"

"But you had loans to pay. Wouldn't that have been the smarter move?" Sasuke questioned.

Since they were pointing out the flaws in each other's logic, Itachi took his turn and stepped up to bat. "And _you_, don't have a salaried job lined up."

But Sasuke wasn't listening anymore. He was idly scrolling through his phone, completely disengaged from the conversation they were just having and stood up. "It's getting late; my friends are probably waiting for me. Later."

Itachi watched his brother's retreating back as he shrugged his jacket over his shoulders and took a bite of his long forgotten pasta.

"How're we doing, gentlemen—" Their server asked, stopping himself when he realized that one of the table's occupant's had left. "Are we finished here?" He asked instead, gesturing to Sasuke's abandoned plate. Itachi nodded slowly, his eyes transfixed on empty seat in front of him. "I'll bring your bill in a minute, but in the meantime, did you enjoy your meal?"

"Good." He replied in reference to the food itself.

"Spicy?" The server asked of the pasta which was coated in a spicy cream sauce.

His mouth was dry and his throat tingled, but not from the spices in his dish. "Yeah."

* * *

See? Now that the Uchiha siblings have been introduced (along with the tension that seems to ensue every time they get together), the story has picked up a pace a little bit, yeah?

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001


	3. Chapter 3

"Suikazan!" Kisame called out to the open garage where Suikazan was inspecting a blue SUV.

"Kisame," Suikazan grunted by way of greeting and stared at the bags Kisame lugged behind him. "Did your girlfriend kick you out or something, Kisame?"

Kisame bowed his head and chuckled, setting his bags by the corner garage. "I already told you, she's not my girlfriend,"

"Bet you wish she was."

"and yeah, I guess you could say she kicked me out. Her boyfriend's moving in with her this Saturday, so I guess I'm moving back in!"

He expected Suikazan to say "good to hear" or "always great to have you" or "I knew it wouldn't last" along with a strong, clap on the back. Instead, Suikazan returned to working on the car. "Kisame,"

"Yeah?"

"Take a seat. There's something I need to talk to you about." He said, gesturing somewhere behind him.

There was nothing lying around that Kisame could comfortably sit on, so he wheeled his suitcase over to where Suikazan was crouched beside one of the car's wheels and sat on his suitcase instead. "What's up?" He asked, leaning in to get a better look at the tire.

"It's not about the car." Suikazan explained. "It's about the shop."

Still leaning forward, Kisame glanced at Suikazan. "What about the shop?"

Suikazan sat up with a long exhale and said "I'm closing it down soon."

"Closing it down?" Kisame echoed. "Why?"

"Sales aren't what they used to be, Kisame. In the city, there are bigger auto-shops that have a name brand, and more money under their belts."

"Suikazan is a name brand." Kisame attempted to argue, but Suikazan cut him off.

"I'm talking big name brands, Kisame, nationally recognized name brands that have the money to do more than just one car at a time," he gestured at the car before them, "to buy bigger and better equipment to get the job done faster, and the funds to keep running. Funds that we don't have."

Kisame interjected. "But nothing compares to an auto-repair done by hand. Machines break down all the time."

Suikazan rubbed his forehead. "That may be true, but machine's will get more jobs done before they break down, and even then, they'll hire someone to come in and fix 'em overnight. Heck, a machine'll get more jobs done than I can get done in my lifetime."

"What about me?" Kisame asked. "You and I can get the job done just as quickly as any machine if the two of us work on it. I can work overnight if you need me to, even."

Suikazan stood up and walked away to find the correct tool he needed, talking as he walked. "That's the thing, Kisame. The shop is called Suikazan Auto-Repair Shop. It's a family owned business; always has been for the past one hundred or so years and I have no family to hand it over to when I keel over."

"You have me!" Kisame shouted now, standing up so fast that his suitcase fell to the floor behind him. "Have you forgotten? So what, my last name isn't Suikazan and I'm not family, but I'm like family to you, you said it yourself!"

The repair shop owner grunted and pulled himself to a stand. "Kisame," he said, placing a hand on the other man's shoulder. "I did say that. I've always considered you like a son to me, but the ugly truth is that we don't have the funds to keep running and I'm getting old. It's time for me to retire, and it's time for you to move on."

Kisame opened his mouth to speak but closed it. He knew he was fighting a losing battle at this point and was having a hard time letting it go.

"But listen. I'm not closing up shop today. I'm going to finish up the last few jobs I already have booked and then I'm closing up shop. You wanted to move back in, right? I'm not going to force you to go crawling back to your girlfriend to beg for her forgiveness, so I'll let you stay for a little while. But only temporarily. Deal?"

"Wait."

"Yes?" Suikazan asked.

"If I find a job elsewhere, and continue to pay you rent, can I still live above the shop?"

Suikazan put his hands on his belt and sighed, a sign that Kisame was starting to exhaust him with his questions. "If I could, you know I would let ya, but the garage here is part of my property and you can only pay rent for as long as I own the property. When I die, you'd have to find a way to pay for the lot, house and all."

Kisame averted his gaze to the ground.

"I think this'll be better for you in the long-run, Kisame. I've been looking out for you since you were eighteen years old. Hell, I've been looking after you longer than your parents have! Getting out into the world will do you some good. I'm sure of it. So do we have a deal, Kisame?"

As much as Kisame hated to admit it, he nodded anyways and said "deal," and shook Suikazan's hand.

"Now then," Suikazan loudly announced his usual manner of speaking, "drop your bags upstairs and help me finish this one up, will ya?"

"Sure thing." Kisame mumbled and gathered up his bags.

* * *

And thus concludes chapter 3 of Parallel Lines. I hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001


	4. Chapter 4

"Drink." Itachi commanded, slamming a tall glass of water next to where Sasuke's head rested on the countertop the next morning.

Sasuke peered up from his crossed arms. "_Jesus Christ_, Itachi, don't do that shit, I have a splitting headache." He groaned and burrowed his head into his forearms again.

"Which you wouldn't have, if you drank some water." Itachi said loud enough to make Sasuke's ears ring.

"_Fucking hell, Itachi!_" Sasuke moaned, sitting up a little. He reached out to grab the glass Itachi had set down and misjudged the distance, accidently knocking it over.

Itachi lunged to keep the glass from rolling off the edge of the counter. He grabbed it before it could roll any closer and placed it next to the sink – out of Sasuke's reach. On top of caring for Sasuke, cleaning up the shards of a broken glass was the last thing that Itachi needed right now.

"Sasuke," Itachi sighed, soaking up the mess on the countertop with a wad of paper towels, "how many times do I have to tell you: if you're gonna drink, do it in moderation."

He glanced over at Sasuke to see if he was listening to him or not and found that his sibling had burrowed his head into his arms again. "You don't have to go out every weekend to drink with your friends, Sasuke. I know that yesterday was a special occasion, but you probably don't even remember a second of it, do you?"

"I remember graduation. And dinner." He mumbled and after a moment added. "And going out for a couple of drinks."

Itachi made a noise of disapproval, which Sasuke didn't catch. It was apparent to him that Sasuke had more than just a couple of drinks last night, but didn't remark on it. "And do you remember stumbling through the streets last night trying to make your way back home?" He asked instead.

"No."

"Or throwing up in the bathroom at 3 in the morning while I held your hair out of your face and helped you to bed?"

"Don't talk about throwing up. I still don't feel good." Sasuke answered and looked up when he felt Itachi's hand on his shoulder.

"Then drink." Itachi commanded again, holding a new glass of water in front of his face. He made sure not to let go until he could feel Sasuke pulling the glass from his hand and watched him drink half of the liquid inside of it. When he was done, Itachi took the glass from him and placed it out of his reach until he was ready to drink it again. Even if Itachi had to remind him for the rest of the day to do so. "Have you learned your lesson?"

Sasuke was partially sitting up now, his head cradled between his shoulders and his arms still crossed him front of him as he stared into space. "It's your fault I drank too much?"

"_My fault?_" Itachi asked incredulously. "How can it be my fault when I wasn't there to keep track of how much you had to drink? If you remember, _you_ were the one who left me alone at the restaurant so that you could go out with your friends!"

"It's your fault because you made me mad yesterday." Sasuke answered, glaring daggers at his older brother. "If you had been more supportive of my decision to move out instead of grilling me about the details – things I'd been researching for months now, I wouldn't have drank myself to oblivion!" He shouted when Itachi flicked him in the forehead, halting his tirade dead in its tracks. "_Fuck!_ Itachi! That fucking hurt like a fucking bitch! I'm still hung over you know!"

"Which is why you're not ready to live on your own, Sasuke." Itachi pointed out, unfazed by Sasuke's words. "You may be twenty-four years old, but you're acting like a child. You're too immature to handle the responsibilities of living on your own."

"Here we go again!" Sasuke yelled, pushing himself up to stand and then lowering himself back onto the chair. "_This_ is the reason that I got so wasted yesterday night, because of _you_ telling me what to do!"

"I'm telling you what to do because it's obvious that you can't make the right decisions on your own, Sasuke! Take this for example!" He said gesturing at Sasuke's hung over state. "If you were living on your own, who would take care of you when you're hung over and don't know what medicines will help or harm you? Who will force you to drink water when you're dehydrated? You couldn't even pick up the glass without knocking it over! I'm surprised that you even remembered our address." He muttered under his breath and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Get off your fucking high horse Itachi, you drink too. You're not God's gift to mankind."

Itachi quickly stalked over and leaned over the opposite side of the counter so that he was inches away from Sasuke's face. "Don't even go there, Sasuke. I seldom drink, and when I do, it's a special occasion like yesterday and unlike you, I'm not hung over."

"Stop treating me like a fucking child, Itachi! I am old enough to make my own decisions, and if it bites me in the ass, so be it, I'll learn from my mistakes, something I can do on my own without your help!"

He yelled so loudly that Itachi was sure that the next door neighbors could hear him. Raising his hands in surrender, Itachi walked out of the kitchen. "Fine. If you want to learn from your mistakes, be my guest. There's no time like the present, right?" He said.

He had just reached the door to his bedroom when he heard the screeching noise of the chairs followed by 195 pounds clumsily crashing against the wood flooring.

Despite what he'd said just a few seconds ago, he found himself next to Sasuke's side in a flash, checking his younger brother's skin for any abrasions before helping him onto the couch.

"What happened to learning from my mistakes and taking care of myself?" Sasuke asked Itachi, who sat watching him from the opposite couch.

"The headache you're suffering from and the bruises you'll have tomorrow morning should teach you a lesson."

Sasuke's headache would fade and his bruises would heal, Itachi knew, but as for the words Sasuke had said that pierced his heart, Itachi wasn't sure would heal so quickly.

* * *

Ooh, it's getting good! I forgot what this chapter was about (since I wrote it back in December/January of last/this year) but when I glanced through it again I was so excited! I hope you all felt the same.

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001


	5. Chapter 5

He and Suikazan had finished working on the blue SUV from the other day, which turned out to have only minor problems concerning the tires. Having finished the job early this morning, Suikazan gave Kisame the rest of the day off to search for another job and place to live, predicting business to be slow, but nothing he couldn't handle alone.

Though Suikazan had given him two tasks: find a new job, and a place to live, finding a job was clearly more important here because Suikazan would kick his butt if he didn't pay him some sort of rent after the auto-shop closed, regardless of the circumstances.

"You're a hard worker," Suikazan told him earlier before he had left, "and a good kid. You'll have no problem finding another job."

Kisame darkly chuckled to himself. "You'll have no problem finding another job." He muttered under his breath.

"I'm serious. You'll find one. I know you will. And if you need a reference, give me a call; I'll tell 'em everything they need to know." Suikazan said, when Kisame argued. "You'll be fine. Trust me."

A day spent visiting two auto-shops within walking distance quickly put that notion to rest as each of the shops' proprietors all parroted the same thing "I'd like to believe you, and I'm sure that you have the knowledge, Mr. Hoshigaki, but we're gonna need a certification of your credentials, you know, some paperwork."

"I've worked in an auto-repair shop for almost two decades! There's your credentials!" Kisame told them each time.

And each time, he received the same dismissive answer "I'm sorry, but there are plenty of vo-tech's around that only take up to two years to complete. When you finish one of those, come and see us and the job is yours."

Each person Kisame had spoken to had made it seem as though two years was a piece of cake. That taking two years' worth of classes was no big deal, that all he had to do was stay where he was and take a few classes here and there, and be content. What they didn't know, was that Kisame's days at his current job were numbered, along with his living arrangements, leaving him standing alone by the bridge that connected his town to the next, separated by a wide river.

The sky was a bright blue, spanning across the horizon, dotted with fat white clouds that seemed to lazily drift across the river as the sun's rays sprinkled the water in a blinding glitter.

Throughout the day, Kisame'd seen college kids walking through the city in tank tops, shorts, and oversized sun glasses, women jogging through the park, a few accompanied by their dogs. It was the perfect day to be out and about.

It was perfect for everyone but Kisame, who watched the dark waters passing under the bridge beneath him, trying to gauge how far the murky depths extended beneath the surface and how badly, if at all, it would hurt to hit that surface from his distance if he jumped.

It wouldn't make a difference, really, he reasoned. His skin was numb. His mind was numb. His entire being was numb. It would hurt, but it wouldn't hurt much.

He shook his head in an attempt to clear his mind. He hadn't hit bottom yet. He still had a job, for a couple of days at least, and a place to live for a couple of weeks. He had plenty of time to turn things around for the better.

With this new mindset, Kisame pushed away from the railing and began the long walk back to the auto-shop, his temporary home.

* * *

Poor Kisame. Hope you enjoyed!

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001


	6. Chapter 6

"What do you mean they said that you didn't have 'sufficient experience' or whatever the hell they told you?" Suikazan demanded the next morning. He was working on a car that was at least three decades old and explained to Kisame "it's a miracle that she still runs, but she does."

"It's because you're a really good mechanic." Kisame said.

"Cut the crap Kisame, I know I'm a good mechanic, and so are you! You're an _excellent_ mechanic, but you don't have the 'experience'? What the hell? What else did they say?"

Kisame awkwardly shrugged. "That I could apply to a vocational tech school for two years and have the right paperwork—"

"Bullshit!" Suikazan shouted. "Fuck paperwork, you have the skills, you have the experience! I have the right mind to walk down there myself and give them the paperwork if I have to!"

Kisame stayed quiet in the face of Suikazan's wrath. He remembered a time when he possessed the same fiery anger as Suikazan did. But that was when he was seventeen. Here in front of him, sat a seventy-three year old man who had surely overcome more hardships in his lifetime and still had plenty of fight left in him. Kisame admired Suikazan for that.

"Kisame," Suikazan said, leaning on one knee.

"Yes?"

"Do me a favor and run down to that sandwich shop and by me a sub, will ya? My blood pressure's high and I need something to eat." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. "And buy yourself something too while you're at it, okay? You can keep whatever change. Put it in your piggy bank or something."

Kisame accepted the twenty dollar bill, confused as to what sandwich shop Suikazan meant. "What sandwich shop? Do you know the name of it or at least what street it's on?"

"I don't care, Kisame, just pick one. Go to that one by the bridge, you can't miss it." Suikazan groaned.

Kisame shrugged, turning to leave.

"Kisame,"

"Yeah?"

Still leaning on one knee with a hand over his eyes, Suikazan fished a set of keys out of his pocket and tossed them to Kisame, who caught them instantly. "Take my car. Otherwise, it'll take me forever to get my sub."

Kisame stared at the keys and pushed them into his coat pocket. "Be back in a few."

The sandwich shop was only a couple blocks away from the bridge, just as Suikazan said, capping off a row of brick apartment buildings on the corner. The shop was almost identical to the set of apartments it sat adjacent to – a two story brick structure with a stone stoop leading up to the front entrance. The only difference was that the bottom floor might have been renovated to include a large glass window to show off the inside of the shop. The top floor was still probably rented out as an apartment, giving Kisame a dash of hope.

Walking up the few stairs that led to the store's entrance, something caught Kisame's eye, instantly elevating his spirits. Taped on the opposite side of the window pane was a sign that read "Help Wanted."

* * *

Things are starting to look up for our valiant hero, aren't they? (Just kidding, Kisame's no hero...or is he?)

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001

PSThe next chapter's an Itachi chapter, for all of you Itachi lovers out there~


	7. Chapter 7

If Sasuke were the mature adult he made himself out to be, then sitting down the next day and having a simple conversation with him wouldn't be a problem, Itachi reasoned.

The murderous glare he received upon sitting on the opposite couch, however, said differently. "If you're going to tell me that I'm too immature to live on my own, you can give it a rest." He spat at Itachi, browsing through a selection of on demand movies on TV.

Itachi sighed. "I'm just asking you to think about this a little more, Sasuke. You don't want to rush something like this." He calmly explained.

"Itachi. I already told you that this was something I'd been researching for months now. I know what I'm doing. Stay out of it."

_How? How can I stay out of it when I'm the only family you have, Sasuke? What if something happens to you? Who'll be there to take care of you? To protect you? To keep you safe?_ Itachi wanted to ask him but didn't. There was nothing he could say or do that Sasuke wouldn't interpret the wrong way and would lead them to have argument like the one they had the day before. If that happened, Itachi feared that Sasuke would never trust him again and perhaps stop speaking to him altogether.

Since then, Itachi never asked about Sasuke's plans and Sasuke never said anything about them. In fact, the brothers hadn't spoken to each other much until the next week when Itachi returned home from work to an odd screeching sound.

Sasuke didn't need to tell him how quickly he was moving into this new apartment he'd found; the large cardboard boxes scattered around his bedroom told him all the answers he needed to know.

Inside his bedroom, Sasuke was stretching a roll of packing tape – the perpetrator of the shrieking Itachi heard when he came in – over the seam of one of the boxes and glanced around for the scissors.

"You said that it's an efficiency apartment," Itachi said, handing him the scissors, "so I assume you're not living with any roommates?"

Sasuke looked between his brother's inscrutable features and the proffered object he held in his hand, contemplating Itachi's sudden change in attitude. "Thanks." He muttered, taking the scissors. "And no, I'm not living with anyone else."

Itachi opened his mouth to speak when Sasuke continued. "I know what you're thinking, 'it's easier to live with a friend when you first start out so that you can split the expenses.'" He stood up, exhaled, and glared at Itachi. "Even though you didn't live with anyone else when you got an apartment."

He didn't meet Sasuke's penetrating gaze, and instead fixated his eyes on the various boxes littering the floor. "You're right. I didn't live with a friend once I graduated college and it would have been much easier if I had any friends to live with."

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Sasuke staring at him before looking away. "You think I didn't consider that?" He asked. "If I thought living with someone else would make my life any easier, I would've done it in a heartbeat. But all the people I can think of would only be a burden to me." He said.

But all Itachi heard was "_If I thought living with you any longer would make life easier, I wouldn't have thought twice about moving out. But staying with you would only be a burden to me."_ He felt for the bed behind him and sat, feeling as though a knife had gone through his heart. "When?" He whispered.

Sasuke turned. "When what?"

"When are you moving out?"

Itachi could feel Sasuke's eyes, looking him up and down, studying him. And in that moment that felt like forever, Itachi kept his gaze focused on the floor beneath his feet – the only thing that seemed to stay constant in his life. "Saturday." Sasuke finally replied.

"Saturday?" Sasuke nodded and continued to pack up the clothes in his closet. Itachi smiled, absently running his hand over the plush surface of Sasuke's comforter. _There's still time._ "Do you need any help?"

Sasuke looked around the room and then back at his closet. "No, I'm good."

"I meant on Saturday." Itachi asked. A week ago he was attempting to talk Sasuke out of his decision, but now he had surrendered to the idea and was offering to help. It was miraculous how quickly things could change.

After about a minute of silence, Itachi began to wonder if Sasuke had heard him or not. If he had, maybe he didn't want to answer the question. "Sure. If you want."

It may not have been the most enthusiastic reply, but if Sasuke was willing to accept the help, who was Itachi to say no? Even if he didn't quite agree with Sasuke's motivations for wanting to live on his own so suddenly, he didn't want to miss helping his little brother move into his first apartment.

"And Itachi?" Sasuke asked. Itachi sat up a little straighter at the mention of his name. "I've been planning this for months now. I'm moving into my apartment on Saturday no matter what you have to say about it." He said, fixing Itachi with a look of unparalleled determination.

It was a complicated position to be in. Having just learned of Sasuke's master plan to move out only a week and a half ago, he had hundreds of questions he wanted to ask him like "did you pay the security deposit and first month's rent?" and "will you be able to pay your bills on time?" or "how much money do you have saved? Will you be able to support yourself?" All of these questions flooded Itachi's head every second of the day whereas Sasuke didn't seem the least bit concerned at all. If anything, he was calmer than Itachi was, and he was the one moving out.

But the way Sasuke had looked at him just now. The confidence and the motivation in his eyes meant that Sasuke was 100% serious about moving out this weekend and was certain that everything would work out fine. Itachi had been that way too at one point. _However, it's miraculous how quickly things can change,_ he thought solemnly.

* * *

Ooh, the tension...without his feisty baby brother around, whatever will Itachi do with himself?

We'll just have to wait and see...

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001

PS The next chapter is an Itachi chapter~


	8. Chapter 8

In the days since Sasuke moved out, Itachi had inadvertently thrown himself into his work, hoping that the rows of numbers on his computer screen would distract him from the lack of Sasuke's presence.

Sasuke didn't usually spend much time in their once shared apartment. When he wasn't in school, he was either working or out with friends. When he wasn't doing either, he spend much of his time lying on the couch with the TV on (racking up Itachi's electric bill), while he texted his friends and or browsed through various social networking apps to see what his friends were up to.

He couldn't say that Sasuke was very good company when he was at home, but there was something comforting about his presence that made Itachi feel whole. They were like two halves of the same circle. They came from the same place. They grew up together. They knew everything there was to know about each other. When Sasuke was home, Itachi didn't need to seek out the company of another person. There was no need to stay late at work to avoid the hectic home life like some of the co-workers he overheard confiding in one another during their lunch hour because Itachi didn't share in their troubles. There wasn't a situation too problematic or too stressful for him and Sasuke to handle because they've run the gauntlet many times before.

Or so Itachi used to think.

He found himself almost wishing that he'd joined those conversations at work. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he knew the day would come when Sasuke would want to move out and live on his own. At least then, Itachi would know how to best cope with his absence, or at least have someone he could confide in too.

He was scanning over the budget he'd been working on when he left work that afternoon when his phone rang. He jumped at the noise that had broken both the silence in the room, and his concentration.

At the sight of the caller I.D., his spirits lifted. "Hello?"

"Hey. What do you want to do for mom's birthday this weekend?" Sasuke asked him. "I don't work until the afternoon, and if you're not busy, I was thinking that we could visit her."

The corners of Itachi's lips tugged upwards ever so slightly. "Yeah. Sounds good."

The other end of the line was silent, and Itachi wondered for a moment if the connection was lost or if Sasuke had hung up on him. "You don't sound too happy. What are you doing?"

Sasuke wouldn't believe that he was simply watching TV. He knew that Itachi didn't care for many of the shows featured on the television lately save for the evening news every now and then. He glanced at the clock on the bottom of his computer screen. It was too early to tell him that he had been sleeping. Quickly running out of ideas, he decided to settle on the truth. "Working."

"_Working?_" Sasuke asked incredulously and sighed. "You know, I live less than an hour away and we're meeting up for mom's birthday on Saturday. It's no different from when I was in school, Itachi."

_But when you were in school, I knew that you were coming back._ Itachi wanted to say but didn't. "I'm not lonely," he lied, "I just got behind on my work today and brought it home with me. I guess I'm just a little stressed out."

"If you're so lonely," Sasuke continued, disregarding Itachi's last statement, "get a roommate or set up an online dating profile or something, whatever! Don't spend all your time working, Itachi."

"Sasuke, you know that I hold online dating services and those who believe in them with contempt." Itachi sighed, wondering how, with his logic, Sasuke would possibly win over any jury in a court case.

"Then hit somebody up from work or something! Some divorcée with kids or something, I don't know!" He suggested. "What about a roommate then?"

"Sasuke," Itachi sighed, "I'm not looking for romance at the moment and I don't need a roommate." He explained, but what he really meant to say was _"there's nobody that can replace you."_

Sasuke huffed in surrender. "You can visit me if you want, but not every day. I'm going to be very busy here soon, you know, looking for another job to stay ahead of the bills or at least one that pays better than the one I have now."

"You can always come home whenever you need to." Itachi found himself saying before he could stop himself.

Sasuke laughed. "Yeah, sure. I know what you're trying to do Itachi, but I'm doing good so far; I can handle this by myself, okay?"

Itachi nodded. "I know. Just remember, Sasuke, I'll always be here if you need me."

"For the fiftieth time, Itachi, I know." Sasuke said. "Listen, I gotta go. See you on Saturday, alright?"

"See you on Saturday." Itachi said, ending the call. Faced with the work he had been doing when Sasuke called, he set his phone to the side and dove back into his work with a renewed vigor.

Even as he soared through his work with the determination he lacked earlier in the day, Sasuke's word's kept tugging at the back of his mind._ "If you're so lonely, get a roommate or set up an online dating profile or something, whatever! Don't spend all your time working, Itachi."_

_"__Sasuke, you know that I hold online dating services and those who believe in them with contempt."_ Which was true. Itachi didn't believe in online dating services and frowned upon the pathetic people who did. In fact, romance wasn't in his line of sight when Sasuke was still living with him; he saw no reason for that to change.

_"__What about a roommate then?"_

Why take such drastic measures for the sake of social interaction when Sasuke was a phone call away and less than an hour drive away? Did Sasuke know him at all? He'd sooner strike up a conversation with the group of co-workers who complained of poor pay but yet clearly had nothing better to do with their time than sit around and chat, rather than hire somebody to keep him company and _live_ with him.

He hopped off one of the barstools at his breakfast bar to fix himself something to drink. The only good a roommate could contribute would be paying half the monthly $2,000+ rent.

As he prepared hot water for a cup of tea, he entertained the thought of saving a thousand dollars a month. After all, he had the extra bedroom, a bedroom which he promised Sasuke would be waiting for him if things on his end didn't work out as planned. But that wouldn't matter as he could easily loan the thousand he saved to Sasuke if need be.

At the cost of his privacy.

The same thing could be just as easily accomplished if he downsized to a smaller, one bedroom apartment with a lower monthly rent. In that manner, he'd still save up to a thousand per month that he could loan to Sasuke if he couldn't pay his rent on time or found himself in a financial bind. On the other hand, if things didn't go according to plan and Sasuke decided to move back in with him, one of them would need to sleep on the couch.

He was confident that Sasuke could manage sleeping on a couch for days at a time; he practically spent ninety percent of his time living with Itachi on one of the couches.

But if everything worked out in Sasuke's favor, where would that leave Itachi?

He watched the steaming hot water pour from his Keurig® into his black ceramic mug, unwilling to dwell on the subject any longer. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he already knew the answer to his question.

Spending all of his free time working to avoid imposing on Sasuke every minute of every day, just like he was today. _That's_ where it would leave him.

In other words, alone.

* * *

And so Itachi gets to thinking...

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001

PS The next chapter is a Kisame chapter~


	9. Chapter 9

"Alright Kisame," Suikazan looked at his wristwatch, "it's 12:14, so why don't you take a little break?"

Kisame looked up from the car hood he was examining. "A break? The engine shouldn't take much longer to fix, I mean, all I gotta do is—" He attempted to say when Suikazan threw the morning's paper at him. The wad of newsprint hit Kisame's shoulder and fell to the floor in a messy pile.

"Idiot. I know that the job won't take much longer, but it's the only job we've got and you're not going to loaf around all day. Do something productive." Suikazan grunted.

Kisame knew better than to argue with Suikazan and instead collected the scattered papers on the floor. With the wad of crumpled newspaper under his arm, he grabbed his soda can from the work bench and headed for Suikazan's office to read the paper.

Once he reached the office, he sat his drink of the desk, dropping a portion of the paper out from underneath his arm. "Damn Suikazan." He grumbled and leaned over to pick up the piece that had fallen onto the floor when he noticed an ad requesting a roommate. "Suikazan!" Kisame called out to his boss.

"What?" Suikazan yelled from the garage. "Aren't you supposed to be on your break?"

"Yeah, but," Kisame said, standing up to show Suikazan the paper instead of yelling across the shop, "I wanted to ask you something." He continued when he was standing beside him.

Suikazan squinted and tilted his head backwards to see it better. "What is it?"

"It's a roommate ad." Kisame stated obviously. Suikazan was still squinting as though trying to read what it said. "Is this why you gave me the paper? Because there was a roommate ad in it?"

"No…I just threw the paper at you because I thought reading it would make you take a longer break. That's all." He explained and continued doing the job that Kisame was previously working on.

Kisame turned the paper around and re-read the ad, smiling to himself. "This way, I'll be out of your hair before the shop even closes, if all goes well."

"That's nice, Kisame, but if memory serves, you're still on break." Suikazan reminded him.

Confused as to why he didn't seem to share his surprise, Kisame attempted to explain "Yeah, but—"

"It's fine and dandy that you got the job making sandwiches, but if you don't find a place to live soon, you're living on the street beside the sandwich shop." He said. "So instead of spending your break blabbering to me, maybe you should be making some phone calls."

Kisame quickly nodded and backed away, still reading the newspaper, before turning around and jogging back to the office to make the call. Thanks Suikazan!" He called behind him, already dialing the contact number listed in the ad.

"Quit your yappin' and make some phone calls, Kisame! Geez."

* * *

Things are looking up for Kisame-san!

And I really like Suikazan's character...just sayin'.

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001

PS Prepare for sibling drama in the next chapter; it's a doozy!


	10. Chapter 10

Cradling a bouquet arranged of various purple flowers, Itachi walked the stone paths of the cemetery like a lost soul searching for their loved one. Or in his case, a bored soul waiting for his younger brother to arrive.

Sasuke proposed that they meet at noon, and living thirty minutes away from their home town, Itachi expected to arrive there first. Ten minutes shy of the designated meeting time, he didn't mind walking around until Sasuke arrived; it was a beautiful summer day. What he didn't expect was for Sasuke to arrive twenty minutes after noon had come and gone, moments before he pulled out his phone to dial his sibling's cell.

"Sasuke." Itachi softly called out to him, pulling himself to a stand.

"Oh. There you are." Sasuke greeted him, turning around in the direction of his voice. "I was starting to think you had forgotten."

Itachi resisted the urge to roll his eyes, keeping his gaze level with Sasuke's. "I could say the same." He muttered. He looked Sasuke up and down, noting the confidence Sasuke emitted in the way that he stood, his hands deep in the pockets of a thin sweatshirt and the majority of his weight balanced on his right leg.

"Before you say anything," Sasuke said, shifting his hands around in his pocket until he produced a white envelope, "I bought her a card. I would've bought a fancy bouquet, but I have bills to pay and I need to get you a card for your birthday too." He turned his head away in embarrassment.

Itachi smiled, shifting the bouquet to his other arm as he ruffled Sasuke's hair. "It's the thought that counts. And," he said, gaining Sasuke's attention, "you don't have to get me anything for my birthday."

Sasuke shook his head and raised his eyebrows in preparation for what Itachi knew was going to be a sarcastic response. "Wow, with the dollar eighty nine I save on your card, I might have enough money leftover to eat out this week!"

"Come on," Itachi said, nodding at the path before them. "We're already late."

Fugaku and Mikoto Uchiha's headstones lay beneath the protection of a large, stately oak tree that shaded their father's headstone in the morning when the sun rose, both when the sun was in the middle of the sky, and at sunset, provided shade to their mother's.

When they reached the site, Itachi gingerly placed the bouquet in the grass before Mikoto's headstone and knelt down beside it. Sasuke did the same, leaning his card against the bouquet and after a moment of consideration, knelt beside his brother.

"Happy birthday." Itachi whispered.

"She can't hear you." Sasuke uttered.

Itachi shot him a quick glare that went unnoticed by his younger sibling and focused on the granite slab in front of him. He was past the point of acting like he did when his mother was alive, remembering the times when he would visit her grave and hide the bouquet he'd bought behind his back to surprise her when he arrived. He whole-heartedly believed that there was life after death and that his mother was watching them from above, even if Sasuke didn't think so. However, each year on her birthday, he always greeted her upon arrival and before leaving, figuring that she at least deserved to hear him wish her a happy birthday when in reality, he said it to counter the years he wasn't with her when she was alive to celebrate it.

"Happy birthday, mom." Sasuke sighed in resignation and looked away when he caught Itachi smiling at him.

Itachi closed his eyes and silently wished his mother a happy birthday and opened them again to find Sasuke's head bowed, eyes closed. To know that regardless of their difference of opinions, Sasuke still mimicked his older brother's actions brought a smile to Itachi's face.

His happiness quickly faded when he remembered that he needed to have a conversation with his younger sibling; a conversation he knew that Sasuke'd rather not have.

"Ready to go back?" Itachi asked, breaking the silence that had settled between them. Sasuke opened his eyes and nodded, pushing himself off the ground and waited for Itachi to do the same.

Waving goodbye to their mother, and nodding in the direction of their father's grave, Itachi turned to meet Sasuke on the stone path.

"How're you holding up?" Sasuke asked in light of his brother's strange habits.

"Fine." Itachi answered easily and changed the topic of conversation to a different matter, one that had been on his mind for days now. "I was thinking about looking for a roommate."

Sasuke, whose gaze was fixed on the stone path before them, drew his eyebrows together in confusion for a moment before sighing. "Let me guess; this is all part of your plan to get me to look for a roommate, isn't it? Find one yourself, tell me all about how much money you've saved and how easy it would be to do the same, right?"

"No, not at all." Itachi responded, smoothly. He made sure that he kept his tone even and chose his words carefully so that Sasuke wouldn't overreact in the same way as he had before.

"Then why do you need a roommate all of a sudden?"

Itachi sighed and averted his gaze. "Since you've been gone, I realized that I have an extra bedroom that I could rent out for someone else to live in." He said, brushing a stray leaf from his shirt, leftover from the bouquet he was holding moments earlier. "Having a roommate would slice my rent in half, which would save me more money per month, which I could then put towards other venues."

"Like what?" Sasuke asked him.

"Retirement, loans, expenses, emergencies, etc.; things you should also be thinking about."

Sasuke shot him a look. "You think that I haven't considered any of that before?" He asked.

Now he knew that he had pushed Sasuke a little too far and needed to quickly steer the course of the conversation back on track. "I'm not saying that. I'm trying to get you to see that even I, at almost thirty years old, still have financial concerns that I need to take care of. It's never as easy as it seems."

"You think you're the only one who can manage everything on their own?" Sasuke retorted. "Because you can't, and you didn't when you first moved out, because dad paid your security deposit and first month's rent."

Itachi stopped walking and put his hands up to calm Sasuke down. "Sasuke, you have to realize that I had loans to pay off and a salaried job already lined up whereas you on the other hand—"

"Me on the other hand," Sasuke continued, "I may not have been offered a salaried job like you were when you graduated from college, but unlike you, Itachi, I don't have college loans either. Mom and dad could've told you over and over that you weren't ready to live on your own because you had loans to pay off, but they didn't, did they? No. Instead, dad knew you could handle everything on your own, because you always have and have never given him reason to doubt you and he still helped you out at first." Sasuke hissed.

They were standing only a few feet away from the gate and were the focus of most people who had come to the graveyard expecting a calm and peaceful atmosphere, not a heated argument between two siblings.

"If mom and dad were still alive, they might have helped me out with this too even though I wasn't their prodigious genius. They wouldn't be breathing down my neck but they're both dead and I'm stuck with you." Sasuke seethed. "Mom even offered to help you look for different apartments; you never even talked to me about it once."

"Because I didn't know you were even looking at apartments, Sasuke!" Itachi argued.

"Did you think that I was going to live with you forever, Itachi? For all your high and mighty talk, it seems like you couldn't wait to move out when you finished college, or was that too long ago for you to remember?"

Itachi groaned and rubbed his eyes. "Sasuke, we're getting off topic here; what does a decision I made in college almost a decade ago have anything to do with my decision to look for a roommate now?"

Sasuke tightly pursed his lips together and spat "Everything. You don't _want_ a roommate. You _hate_ interacting with other people. You don't _need_ a roommate either because you can easily pay for a two bedroom apartment – you've been doing it for years now without a problem. If it was ever a problem, you could have told me and I would've helped you out. But you never said anything, so why is it so important for you to have somebody help you out now, a week after I've moved out?" He asked, arms crossed in expectation.

"I already told you, to build up my savings and finish paying off my loans."

"Then downsize." Sasuke interjected. "It would save you the work of living with another person because I know you, Itachi. You'd sooner sell your car than live with a total stranger if it meant saving money. This is just a shallow attempt to get me to change my mind so that I can come crawling back to you so you won't be lonely, even if you're not saying it."

In the face of Sasuke's accusations, Itachi unclenched his hands and wondered at what point of the argument he had started to clench them. More importantly, at what point did their simple conversation turn into an argument?

He looked at Sasuke, who had long since grown to be as tall as Itachi himself, whose stance radiated confidence and whose steely expression dared Itachi to prove him wrong. There was no doubt in Itachi's mind that Sasuke would make an excellent prosecutor.

But for a future prosecutor, Sasuke was a terrible listener. He always had been. Yet, miraculously, he'd managed to graduate from law school and pass his bar exam. During those years, it hadn't been easy for either one of them, but somehow they'd managed and Itachi was on Sasuke's side every day since he was born. And even though he was still very much on Sasuke's side, why did it feel as though his sibling was prosecuting him for a crime that he hadn't even committed?

But here they were, arguing in the cemetery of all places, on their mother's birthday, about the different paths life had lead them, a drastic turn of events that had left Itachi at a loss for words.

"Thought so." Sasuke said in place what would have been Itachi's response. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and walked past Itachi towards the entrance.

"Sasuke, wait!" Itachi called out, suddenly finding his voice. But Sasuke didn't turn back and Itachi didn't chase after him.

Itachi stared at his younger brother's retreating back. The very person who, at five years old, would eagerly run down the stairs of their parent's house the second Itachi arrived home and throw his tiny arms around his waist, nuzzling his head into Itachi's stomach and rapidly listing all the things they could do now that Itachi had returned home from school.

That same person who, at twenty-four years old, had turned his back on the older sibling he'd once looked up to and adored, an adult ready to make his own decisions and experience firsthand what a cold and ruthless world it was out there.

With, or without Itachi in it.

* * *

And what about that chapter? Wow, that was tense...awkward! Hopefully the brothers will soon settle their differences...or not!

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001

PS The next chapter is another Itachi chapter!


	11. Chapter 11

At 1:39 a.m. on Monday morning, Itachi should've been in bed instead of watching an episode of a TV comedy he'd heard of before, but never had the desire to see.

Even now he didn't see the appeal as he slouched back against the plush backing of the sofa, trying to distinguish the fluctuating plot of the series' four main characters.

And the plot of tonight's re-run seemed to circle around one of the characters arguing with a couple's sudden decision to move. What were the odds that the most interesting show he could find on TV at 1:30 in the morning related so closely to his own dilemma with Sasuke?

_"__Listen to yourself," _one of the characters said, much like Itachi had wanted to say to Sasuke,_ "it's the pregnancy brain talking."_ Okay, maybe it didn't match up _exactly_ with his own life, but it did contain some uncanny similarities.

_"__I'm just saying, you're not in the right mind to be making this kind of decision right now." _The character continued, and surprisingly, Itachi found himself nodding in agreement with her.

_"__She's right," _the other character agreed,_ "we are in not in the right state of mind to be making this kind of decision right now."_

How he'd wished it'd been that easy with Sasuke.

_"__Instead," _he continued,_ "we let the universe figure it out for us!"_

Feeling sick to his stomach, Itachi reached for the remote control and quickly changed the channel to an informative program about cocaine trade in cities across the country.

Sasuke wasn't that dumb, Itachi knew. Surely he was smart enough to know that his problems wouldn't resolve themselves unless he took the appropriate actions to resolve them. However, considering Sasuke's blasé attitude of late, Itachi had his doubts.

A sudden knock at the door made him jump almost a foot in the air and sent the remote flying from his grip and over the side of the couch. He frantically glanced around, looking for a clock to confirm that it was too early in the morning for anybody except a drunkard to be knocking on his door.

Maybe it was Sasuke.

Getting up, Itachi hastily made his way across the living room to answer the door, not caring for how he looked with his hair loose and wild, messily cascading over his shoulders, clad only in a plain white shirt and the grey shorts he sometimes wore to bed on hot summer evenings. The only thought going through his mind was that Sasuke was here, knocking on his door, too intoxicated to remember his new address, but not so much that he couldn't call a cab and offer the driver Itachi's address instead.

"Are you Itachi Uchiha?" A police officer greeted him.

Itachi immediately stiffened, pulling his hair away from his face and smoothing out his clothes. "Yes, officer." He answered politely as he was taught to respond by his father. "What seems to be the problem?" He asked.

Drugs maybe? He didn't have any illegal substances stashed in his apartment, and he was careful to lock his door immediately upon entering and exiting. Had someone broken in? He glanced at the officer's feet. If drugs were involved, he would've brought a dog with him, but he had not.

"What's your relation to Sasuke Uchiha?" He asked him.

Itachi stared at the man before him, recognizing him to be one of his father's co-workers whom he recalled his father saying had retired the year before Sasuke entered college. "I'm his brother." He found himself responding. If this man had retired before Sasuke started school like his father had said, then how did he know his brother?

"Sir, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but your brother has been killed in a car accident."

_Your brother has been killed in a car accident._

What was this feeling? It wasn't the same as forgetting a dentist appointment. When that happened, you simply called and rescheduled for another day.

_Your little brother, your only surviving family, has been killed in a car accident._

And it wasn't nearly the same as being late to a meeting. While humiliating, you apologized, took your seat, and promised your boss you'd be more careful the next time.

_He's dead and he's never coming back_.

Even their father's sudden death of a heart attack at the age of 50, came nowhere close to something such as this. As untimely as it was, Itachi was forced to push his feelings to the side, having recently dealt with the death of their mother, to move back home to be with Sasuke when they needed each other the most.

But what did he have if Sasuke was gone?

"How?" He whispered faintly, the simple word draining the last few ounces of his composure. His hands were starting to shake and he could feel tears biting at the corners of his eyes.

"Driving under the influence." The officer stated evenly. "I'm sorry for your loss."

This wasn't happening. This couldn't happen. Itachi would've known that Sasuke was going out to drink with his friends. His friends would've stopped him, right? Somebody would've stopped him from getting into the car. In fact, if Itachi had known he was going to be drinking, he wouldn't have even _allowed_ Sasuke to take his car keys with them for fear that this might happen.

But it did happen. And it happened because he didn't know that Sasuke was drinking. Sasuke had clearly made every decision himself. He was an adult now, living on his own, and there was nothing Itachi could do to stop him.

He screwed his eyes shut in a desperate attempt to shut everything out, the news, the police officer, and most of all, the pain.

He may have been successful in blocking out the officer's face, but he had failed to silence the thoughts spiraling out of control inside his head.

_Sasuke is dead. And I couldn't do anything to stop him._

The moment he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at the cream colored ceiling of his bedroom, and took a few minutes for his heartbeat and breathing to return back to normal. _A dream…._He lazily rolled over to his side only to discover that he was covered in sweat. _So much for catching a few extra minutes of sleep,_ he thought to himself, making a mental note to strip the bed of its covers before he left.

He picked up his phone where it sat on the nightstand and to his horror, found that he had less than fifteen minutes to shower, get dressed, and arrive to work on time.

Relenting to the notion that today, for the first time in a long time, he would be late to work, he pinched the fabric of the sheets beneath him, which, as he expected, were also soaked in his sweat.

Unwilling to lay back down on his sticky bed yet reluctant to get ready for the day, Itachi weighed the pros and cons of calling in sick. A quick glance at his phone reminded him that he was to be present for an office meeting at ten this morning and thus had no choice but to get ready for the day.

But first, he needed to take care of the bed sheets before the sweat seeped through the thin fabric and stained his mattress.

Quickly stripping the bed of its tarnished sheets, he bundled the sticky mass in his arms and tossed them into a corner to deal with later. With the sheets taken care of, Itachi gathered up his clothes and retreated to the bathroom to shower. In addition to his meeting this morning, he'd also scheduled to meet with a potential roommate later this afternoon. _I guess the laundry will have to wait a little longer then_, he wearily thought as he turned the shower dials and removed his shirt.

While he couldn't say that he was looking forward to the encounter after his argument with Sasuke concerning the matter, maybe, just maybe he'd be in for a surprise.

* * *

Author's note: When writing this chapter, I actually consulted the TV guide for a show that might have been playing around the time that Itachi was awake, and I kid you not, the show that was playing actually detailed an argument between the main characters about moving out. How ironic!

I think that this is my favorite chapter so far. Poor Itachi.

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001

PS The next chapter is a "Kisame" chapter~


	12. Chapter 12

Kisame looked up at the looming building before him and then down at the back of a crumpled receipt where he had scrawled the address of the location where he was meeting his potential new roommate.

"This can't be right." Kisame muttered and looked back up at the behemoth before him.

He counted the stories. It was ten stories tall, maybe eleven; he couldn't say for sure without walking backwards into the street to get a better view. He looked at the address again and then at the address listed on the golden plaque on the building.

The number he had and the number on the building matched, but Kisame couldn't bring himself to believe that the address he had been given was correct. When he saw an ad requesting a roommate, he imagined something like the sandwich shop – a brick building squeezed between other buildings like it with cracks scaling up the sides, and air conditioning units hanging out of windows or something like that. In fact, if the residence above the sandwich shop were vacant, he'd be content living there, but this…this is where people who had money lived. And people who had money, at least, as far as Kisame knew, didn't need roommates to help pay their rent.

A smile spread across Kisame's face. Unless they didn't need the money at all and just wanted somebody to keep them company. If that were the case, that'd be a bonus.

Quickly settling upon the idea, Kisame smiled and headed for the entrance, pausing briefly at the gold plaque that read the address, before walking inside.

The interior was dark, the walls lined with dark wood paneling, illuminated by a single glass chandelier and a few wall lamps here and there.

On his right sat the front desk, which was currently left unintended. On it, sat a tiny bell to ring for assistance, if needed. Further down were a pair of elevators, and a crowd of people gathered around; men wearing expensive suits, some donning briefcases, and the women wearing clingy dresses.

Across from the elevators was a wall that was entirely dedicated to mailboxes, proving that this was, in fact, an apartment building and not some cooperate office. In front of them, four chairs sat around a square glass coffee table.

Seated in one of them, a man wearing a gray suit was reading a paper. That man, Kisame decided, must be the one who placed the ad in the paper since he specified to meet him in the lobby when they talked over the phone the other day.

"Hi, did you place an ad in the paper for a roommate?" Kisame asked politely.

The man lowered the paper and gave Kisame a quizzical look before reading again. "Sorry, no."

"Thanks anyways." Kisame waved, and walked towards the entrance where there were another set of chairs – all of them vacant.

Kisame sat down in one of them leaned back. They weren't the comfiest chairs in the world to sit, which was a let-down since most of the chairs back at the auto-shop were stacked crates or tires. He leaned forward, propping his elbows on his knees and lacing his hands together in anticipation as he waited to meet his potential roommate, who seemed to be running late.

There was always somebody standing at the entrance to the elevator, Kisame noticed, and at times there were waves of people who would walk through the class entrance and wait for the elevator to pick them up. The waves of people must have been the result of different professions ending at different times, he guessed.

"Kisame Hoshigaki?" A man asked in a rushed voice from behind him.

At the mention of his name, Kisame looked up and only saw the back of the man's black sport coat before he was in front of him. "That's me." He answered the air and turned around so that he was facing forward.

"Excuse my tardiness, I had a lot of work to finish today." He said, and set his lap top bag on the floor so he could reach out to shake his hand. "Itachi Uchiha. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."

* * *

And so they meet...

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001


	13. Chapter 13

Let me start by apologizing for the delay; this chapter _was_ written ahead of time, but I made some changes to it recently (I specifically had a highlighted note in caps instructing me to reread after a certain point) and I needed to make sure that I was happy with the changes before uploading it (which required me to plan +10 chapters ahead of the game to maker certain that the consequences of the decisions made in this chapter are ones I'll be content with later on so I don't have to rework anything). I did plan on updating it on time...it just took a week longer...

Oh, and one more interesting tidbit: THIS is the chapter for which the line "In a meeting of fate..." described in the summary pertains to (more or less).

In the meantime, here's to the longest chapter thus far! *cheers*

* * *

_"__Excuse my tardiness, I had a lot of work to finish today." He said, and set his lap top bag on the floor so he could reach out to shake his hand. "Itachi Uchiha. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."_

Kisame stood up to shake Itachi's outstretched hand. "Pleased to make your acquaintance." He said, taking his seat.

Itachi was dressed like all the other people Kisame had seen since he arrived; black dress pants, a buttoned down shirt and a tie.

"Tell me about yourself, Kisame." Itachi said, crossing his ankle at the knee. He pronounced his name "Kee-_sem_-ay." Most people mispronounced his name, saying it "Kee-_som_-ay." Itachi was a first.

Kisame realized with a start that Itachi had asked him to talk about himself and didn't know what to say.

When he couldn't come up with anything, Itachi rephrased the question. "What's your story? Why do you want to room with me? What can you contribute?"

He pursed his lips and thought it over for a minute. Professional attire, quick-to-the-point; Kisame was beginning to think that this man didn't want a roommate just for company. "I'm not really sure what to say." He started awkwardly. Itachi's dark eyes were fixated on him, his gaze rigid as he waited for Kisame to continue. "I'm a hard worker. I can be neat. I can cook some halfway decent meals…" He trailed off uncertainly.

"What do you do for a living?" Itachi cut in.

This, Kisame knew the answer to. "I'm a mechanic at Suikazan Auto-Repair Shop. Ever heard of it? It's down the way, you take a left at—" Itachi shook his head. "I'm a mechanic." He settled on.

Itachi nodded. "Does it pay well?"

_You don't look like the type to crawl underneath cars_, Kisame wanted to say when he realized the purpose of the question. "Yeah, I guess it pays pretty good."

"Does it get busy there often?" Itachi asked.

Kisame thought about the car job he and Suikazan finished a couple of days ago. Since then, Kisame was helping Suikazan tidy up the place to see what he could sell and what he could keep. "It's been steady lately." Kisame said.

"I might bring my car down sometime for a tune-up if the chance arises. Can you give me a price range?"

This is where Kisame faltered. "Well, you see…we're closing up shop soon. Suik-" he started to say, and caught himself, "the owner, my boss, is retiring."

"How long have you been working there?" Itachi asked.

"Twenty two years." Kisame answered.

Itachi leaned onto his right elbow. "If you were loyal for all those years, couldn't you take over the business? After working there for all that time, you must know how to effectively run it, don't you?"

"That's what I said." He muttered, remembering back to his argument with Suikazan the day he learned the news.

"Have you lined up another job at a different repair shop then?"

Kisame scrunched his eyebrows together and sighed. "I tried, but they said that I lacked the necessary 'certification' and would need to go to school for two years to get certified."

"Do you have any other jobs lined up?"

"I do." Kisame said proudly, happy to let Itachi know that he wasn't a bum looking to mooch from the rich. "At the Hozuki Sandwich Co., that sandwich shop down by the bridge." Itachi looked unimpressed. "I start next Wednesday."

Itachi, who had been leaning back in his chair, head resting on his knuckles, was now leaning forward, slouching almost, with his knuckles pressed into his cheek now. "Anything else?"

Kisame's eyes darted around the floor as if he would find the answer Itachi wanted to hear somewhere in the rug. "No, not yet." He said uncertainly and remembered what Suikazan had told him about always making eye contact with the man interviewing him. Snapping his head up, he looked Itachi in the eyes. "I haven't had the opportunity to do so yet. I have a lot of things going on right now."

"I see. I think I've heard everything I need to know. I'll get back to you with my decision within the next week." Itachi said, reaching over the arm of the chair for his lap top bag.

The air was ripe with the promise of rejection, a feeling that Kisame was all too familiar with lately and he wasn't going to let this meeting go down like that.

"Wait!" Kisame said, halting Itachi's movements.

Itachi raised an inquisitive brow. "Yes?"

"Listen, I now I sound like bum who doesn't know what they're doing, but I've just…it's just, it's been hard, lately, you know?" Kisame asked him. Itachi's expression didn't change, and Kisame mentally kicked himself for saying what he'd said. Of course Itachi didn't know what he was talking about. "I used to live above the shop – the repair shop – but I moved out a month ago to stay with a friend, but she kicked me out to let her boyfriend move in—"

Itachi held up a hand to silence him. "I've heard enough. I'll get back to you later, Kisame." He said, pulling his bag up by the strap.

"Please, listen. Hear me out, please." Kisame pleaded. Itachi sat still and motioned for him to continue, clearly losing his patience. "Times are tough. I _had_ a place to live. I _had_ a steady job. If things were different, I wouldn't look like such a loser—"

"No." Itachi interjected, standing up now. "You would still be living at the auto-repair shop. Not sitting here wasting my time."

It had been twenty two years since Kisame's mother kicked him out of the house. Since he got a job at Suikazan's, things started to smooth out and go his way until just recently. It seemed as though everything stable in Kisame's life was falling out from under him, and through it all, he'd kept a pretty even head.

Something about Itachi's last comment unearthed the anger he felt at being kicked out when he was younger. Just then, something inside Kisame snapped.

"I bet you've always had it easy."

"Come again?" Itachi asked, his attention directed towards Kisame once more.

"I bet everything's come easy for you. You were probably brought up in an expensive, gated community, went to some private school, got straight A's throughout school and never had to work at the same time." Kisame seethed. He knew that he was probably taking things out of proportion but he couldn't stop now. The words just popped into his head and rolled off his tongue before he could think twice. "I bet your parent's paid your way through college and hooked you up with a good job because they know a guy. If I had the life you did, I wouldn't be 'wasting your time.'"

Itachi pursed his lips together and closed his eyes, inhaling in annoyance. "I'm not judging you based on your appearance or my assumptions of you."

Kisame looked down at his dark blue jeans. They were the nicest pair he owned, but regardless, did sport a small oil stain on the left thigh. Had he known he was being interviewed for the Nobel peace prize, he would've put a little more effort into his attire.

"I'm looking for a roommate so that I can pay off my student loans." Itachi continued and turned around to once again face Kisame, his eyes narrowed. "Had I not been caring for my brother while he worked his way through college, I would've paid them off sooner. In short, I'm looking for someone who can pull their own weight." Itachi said. "I'm sorry that things aren't going so well for you right now but I can't let you live with me free of charge."

"But if you would just give me the chance," Kisame said, rising to his feet to meet Itachi's gaze, "you waited this long to pay off your student loans, just give me a chance, I'll prove to you that I'm not a waste of time. I'll look for another job, and maybe even another. As many as it takes." He begged. Kisame knew that by this point, he was grasping at straws, but he couldn't afford to go back to Suikazan's. Not with the shop closing soon.

Kisame made sure to keep eye contact, hoping that maybe he would see something in Itachi's eyes that would tell him what the other man was thinking, but Itachi's expression was unreadable.

"Then you can kick me out." He said. "I want this so badly that I'm begging you to give me a chance. Itachi, I need this. If I don't pull my weight, kick me out and don't let me come back. That'll teach me a lesson."

Itachi studied him for a moment and closed his eyes with a sigh. "You have one week to find another job in addition to your pre-existing job at the sandwich shop."

_One week?_ "If it's alright with you," Kisame asked uncertainly, knowing he was sailing into uncharted waters by asking this, "can I ask for a little longer? As I mentioned before, my boss is retiring soon, and our last job is in a few days. I won't have much time to search for a job this week since I'll be helping him close up shop."

Itachi averted his gaze to the arm chair for a moment before once again shifting his focus back on Kisame. He appeared to be considering the man's proposition in his head, discerning the pros and cons of allowing Kisame an extra week to find a second job and get his life in order before moving in with him. "Fine." He said after a long moment of thought.

Kisame closed in eyes in relief, happy that Itachi was giving him a fair chance at this. He liked to think that Itachi didn't merely agree with his logic, but that Itachi trusted him too.

"I will give you _two_ weeks to find another job in addition to your pre-existing job at the sandwich shop." He continued, snapping Kisame's focus back onto the topic at hand. "But let me ask you this: do you have a place to live until then?"

Kisame nodded more eagerly than he probably should have before responding "Yes."

Itachi slowly nodded and rose to his feet. "If you find a job before then, call me to arrange a meeting time two Mondays from now." He said and pulled out his phone to confirm the date of their next rendezvous. "The eighteenth. If I do not receive a call from you, I will assume that you haven't yet found a job and will take my search elsewhere. Understood?"

Instead of eagerly nodding to everything Itachi said to him, Kisame carefully thought through the other man's words. "What time would be most convenient to call?" He asked.

"You may call whenever it is most convenient for you. I will say this, however, I am at work from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon so you probably won't be able to reach me. If that's the case, just leave me a voicemail and I'll check it when I have time." He said. When it was clear that Kisame's facial expression still held a hint of uncertainty, Itachi elaborated. "If I check my phone Tuesday morning and I haven't received a call from you, I will interpret that to mean that you have not found a job and I will take my search elsewhere. Does that sound fair to you?"

"Yes, that sounds fair." Kisame agreed.

"Good. I look forward to meeting with you again in two weeks, Mr. Hoshigaki." Itachi said, extending his hand for a handshake.

Kisame quickly scrambled to his feet and extended his own hand, grateful for the fact that it took a lot more pressure for his palms to begin to sweat. "Thanks for reconsidering."

"You can thank me after you find another job." He said, and hoisted his laptop over his shoulder.

Kisame remained standing long after Itachi walked in the direction of the elevators, and long after he disappeared inside of them. _In two weeks,_ Kisame thought to himself, _that could be me._

He stood standing like that for another minute or two when he realized that people were staring at him oddly and took his leave.

Outside, the sun had set behind the jagged horizon of the city skyline, draping the night in a hazy shade of bluish purple and giving rise to first few stars of the night if one looked closely enough.

Checking his own phone, Kisame decided to stop inside every shop on the way back to Suikazan's to pick up an application. He'd not only start his search immediately, but he'd land a job by the end of the week and prove to Itachi that he was more than suited to be his roommate.

He just hoped that Suikazan wouldn't mind if he arrived home later than expected.

* * *

And so Kisame has been presented with a challenge...will he rise to the occasion, or fall flat on his face in the process? Only time will tell...

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001

PS Chapter 14 is written and will be posted sometime tomorrow most likely. It's a Kisame chapter, and it's a good one!


	14. Chapter 14

Author's note: I know I said I would upload sometime today, and this is not at all what I planned (and I will explain the reason at the end of this chapter), but hey, it's a new day, I'm on fanfiction, so I might as well, right?

* * *

"Excuse me." A man said, lightly rapping his knuckles on the steel garage door frame.

Kisame looked up from the collection of wrenches he was putting back in their proper places. This was Suikazan's last job and since Kisame hadn't seen the man all morning, he decided to busy himself with some much needed clean-up until the client returned to pick up his truck.

"I'm here to pick up my truck, a 2010 Ford F150," He said, pointing to the red truck sitting in the middle of the shop. "That one, right there." He said.

Kisame nodded and led the man to Suikazan's office to get his keys and go over the job. "Everything appears to be working well." Kisame said when they got in. He plucked the lone set of keys from the cork board where Suikazan kept the keys for every job he was currently working on and tossed them to their rightful owner who caught them with a single hand. "I wasn't here when Suikazan did the job, but I double-checked his work. Your tires have been rotated, your oil has been filtered, your gauges are working correctly – everything seems to be in working order." He smiled and offered his hand for a hand shake.

The man smiled back and shook the proffered hand. "Thanks man. So the shop's closing down pretty soon, I suppose? I didn't see very many cars out when I got here." He said, gesturing outside.

He nodded with a sigh and said, "Yeah man, your car was our last job. That's it after today."

"That's a shame, because I really like the work you guys do. You really put a lot of time into everything you do and it shows, it really does."

"Thanks."

"You're not taking over the business, are you?" The man asked him.

Kisame shook his head. "Nah. I don't know the first thing about running a business." He lied.

He shrugged. "You seem to know your way around the shop; I think you could do it if you wanted to." The man smiled and turned to leave, but just before he opened the door, he turned to Kisame and asked "Say, where is old man Suikazan, anyways? I wanna thank him for all the years he's worked on my car."

This took Kisame by surprise. He knew that his customers appreciated their work, but he never thought that they appreciated it this much. "Um…" Kisame stalled. "He's not here at the moment." He said, stating the obvious.

"Where is he? Should I come back another time, or…what?" He asked.

It was a good question. A question that Kisame honestly didn't know the answer to. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed Suikazan's number. "Gimme a sec." Kisame said to the man who nodded in understanding and waited for the call to go through.

Suikazan was always present in the garage, from sun up to sun down, it seemed. He was always there whenever Kisame came down for work in the morning, he was there when he came back from job-hunting, and most nights, he was there working on something when Kisame called it a day.

After ringing a few times, the call went to Suikazan's awkward voice mail recording, something it never did.

"Kisame, answer my phone for me, will ya?" Suikazan would ask if he was underneath a car or elbows deep in an engine.

"Can't you just call them back?" Kisame would ask in response.

"I can't let them hear my voicemail!" He'd yell, maneuvering his hands from out of the engine, or shimmying out from under the car.

"Then do it over!" Kisame'd yell, picking up the phone.

"_God_, Kisame, I could've injured myself trying to pick that _darn_ thing up before it went to voicemail." Suikazan would mutter, rubbing his back.

Having returned to his own work, Kisame would be shaking his head "If you hate it that much, then do it over. It's not that difficult."

"Do you know how long it took me to get it right the first time? And it's still bad!"

Kisame never understood why Suikazan gave his customer's his cell phone number if he hated his voicemail box recording as much as he did. When his cell didn't work, Kisame tried dialing his house phone.

"Man, it's alright, I'll just come back another day or somethin'. If he ain't answerin', he ain't answerin'." The man said, halfway out the door.

Kisame was about to protest when the phone, after ringing eight times, went to voicemail as well. "Where _is_ he?" Kisame muttered under his breath, quickly walking past the man standing at the doorway.

He'd last seen Suikazan the day before when he was running late and asked Suikazan if he could borrow his car to get there as quickly as possible. He was late, regardless as he received a lecture about time-management and responsibility, and did what he was told to do – cater to other people's demands and make sandwiches. By the time he got back, the lights in the garage were off, and Suikazan's house lights were on, signifying that he'd called it a night due to very little business.

And now it was déjà vu all over again, Kisame thought, as he briskly walked the short distance from the auto-shop to Suikazan's home, which was set closer to the road than the shop was.

When he got to the front door, he knocked and waited for five minutes. Suikazan was seventy-three, almost seventy-four. Although he could repair cars, trucks, motorcycles, you name it in under seventy-two hours, you had to give the man some time to move from one place to another.

With five minutes gone, Kisame knocked again and waited for his answer. Out of the corner of his eye, the man who owned the red truck had pulled up and rolled his window down. "Don't worry about it, man, I'll be back again later or something." He called and rolled his window back up as he turned onto the road.

Kisame watched as the red truck disappeared down the road and focused on the door. No noises were coming from the house like he'd expected. If Suikazan had run in to fetch something, Kisame would've been able to hear him from the inside, telling him "I'm coming, I'm coming, quiet down! Geez. If it's you Kisame, you better believe that Imma whup your _butt_ for looking for me when I've only been gone for five minutes! You hear me?"

But he didn't hear anything. Nothing at all.

He pulled his phone from his pocket. No missed calls and no text messages, not that Suikazan texted, but hey, it was a new day, anything could happen.

He considered dialing 911. Suikazan wasn't young anymore. He was old. Kisame never told him that to his face, but they both knew that he was getting older and wasn't the strapping young man he thought himself to be when he was younger.

Kisame's mind drifted to those commercials he'd seen on TV that advertised devices that the elderly pressed when they'd fallen and couldn't get up. He'd mentioned it to Suikazan once and received "_what a load of bologna_" as his answer.

Besides, if he did call 911, the paramedics would have to find a way into his house, which would probably lead to them breaking in. If they broke in and Suikazan was alright, Suikazan would kick Kisame to the curb without a hint of remorse and make him pay for any damages done to the house.

With that in mind, Kisame jogged back to the garage and fished around the top drawer for his spare key. When he didn't find it, he realized that Suikazan must have taken it to let himself back into his house as Kisame had taken his car keys (which contained the house key he usually used) to work with him that day.

Car keys in hand, Kisame jogged back to the house and promptly let himself inside. In all the years Kisame had worked for Suikazan, he could count the number of times he'd seen the inside of the man's house on his left hand. He never had reason to be inside Suikazan's house since Suikazan himself didn't appear to spend much time inside his own house.

"Suikazan?" Kisame called out. The stairwell divided the first floor into two sides, the living room and the dining room with the kitchen nestled behind it. He could see into both the living room and dining room without having to set foot in either, and knew that his voice had carried enough for Suikazan to hear him in the kitchen if he was even _in _the kitchen.

To make sure, he walked through the dining room and peered into the kitchen with no luck. From there, he walked behind the stairs where he found two doors, one closed, and the other ajar. He pushed the second door open and flicked the light switch on, discovering it to be a bathroom. A bathroom without Suikazan in it. Then he tried the other door which led to staircase that descended down into the basement.

Walking halfway down the stairs, Kisame called "Suikazan?" But it was no use. If Suikazan were in the basement, a light would've been turned on, not off.

Once back on the first floor, Kisame closed the door behind him and sighed. "Guess the only place to go is up." He told himself and retraced his steps back through the kitchen and dining room until he found himself at the foot of the stairs.

Upon reaching the top, he found three doors, two closed, and one left slightly ajar. He looked over his shoulder to make sure Suikazan wasn't making his way up the steps, thinking that Kisame was a burglar or something, but he wasn't.

His heartbeat quickened as he walked towards the open room. He hadn't seen Suikazan since yesterday morning, which was odd in and of itself since he was supposed to meet with his final customer today – something Kisame was sure he wouldn't miss. That aside, Suikazan was _always_ in the shop. Always. All of his cars were present, Kisame knew. He'd looked for them before making his way over to Suikazan's house.

And for him to be inside Suikazan's house, uninvited, meant something wasn't right.

"Suikazan?" He asked quietly, stepping inside the bedroom. He didn't have to ask twice, as he fumbled for his phone to dial 911.

He didn't want to be here. Instead, he'd wanted to be standing at the bridge, or better yet, lying six feet underground. It was fitting, really. When he saw Suikazan's lifeless body, his brain had turned off for a second and his heart skipped a beat before he moved to call 911. Now, here he was, sitting on Suikazan's front porch as the paramedics wheeled Suikazan's corpse into the back of the ambulance and switched the lights off.

He didn't remember being spoken to by any of the paramedics. If they talked to him, he didn't remember what he said to them in response. It was seventy-seven degrees outside, and yet, despite that, his mind and his body felt numb.

When the ambulance pulled out of the driveway, Kisame stood up and began walking with a familiar destination in mind.

His job was no more. His residence, after a while, would be as well. And the only person he considered family, his only friend, was gone too.

His lips twisted into a smile as he thought of Itachi who was probably at work. There was no doubt that he had his share of hardships, but at least he had one living family member and a place to call home. Kisame, on the other hand, had nothing else to lose.

* * *

Author's note: So...I realized that I made a mistake of mentioning that Suikazan was dead in the last chapter (don't bother going back and looking now, because I already fixed it - hopefully) so after fixing it, I was like "ah, what the heck? I'll just post the next chapter while I'm on). And so here it is.

Poor Kisame...

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001

PS The next chapter, which has yet to be written but has been carefully planned, will be a Kisame chapter and it will probably be a week or two before I get around to typing it up.


	15. Chapter 15

Standing at his usual spot on the bridge, Kisame peered over the guardrail that prevented inattentive and clumsy people from falling over the edge and distracted drivers from plunging into the murky river depths below.

In his hands, he tightly clutched a small, rectangular box that held what was left of Fuguki Suikazan, neatly packaged and ground into a fine powder.

Readjusting the grip he had on the box, holding it close against his body as he carefully pried open the lid and gently set it on top of the guardrail.

If he did this, Suikazan would be gone forever. There would be no place to visit him. His remains would be at the mercy of the dark waters below the bridge. His only friend in life would vanish with the tide.

The alternative, keeping the ashes on the fireplace mantel where it'd only collect dust, was the last thing he wanted to do. He wasn't even sure if Itachi's apartment even _had_ a fireplace with a mantel. If he did, Kisame was certain that he wouldn't be very open to the idea of having a stranger's ashes showcased on his mantle for all to see.

_Does he even _have_ visitors over often? _Kisame wondered. Itachi didn't seem like the type of person who enjoyed social outings in general, much less ones that took place in his own apartment. At least, that's the impression Kisame had when he first met the man, anyways.

Determined to finish what he came here to do, Kisame dipped his hand into Suikazan's ashes and watched as the fine grain poured from between his fingers and vanish with the breeze. Extending his arm, he tilted his hand and watched the rest of the mound fall towards the water below before being carried off with the wind before it could even reach the surface.

He did this another four and a half times before the box was completely empty and his hand was coated in what was left of his former boss.

He clapped his hands together a few times to dispel a majority of the ashes before wiping them on his jeans. He didn't care that he just dirtied his last clean pair of jeans. If anything, knowing that he would be able to carry some of Suikazan with him after he left here made him feel slightly better about what he'd just done.

"Kisame?" A feminine voice asked him. "Is that you?"

The sound of another person's voice took Kisame back a little. Not many people stood by the side of the road idly glancing over the guardrail, watching the few boats bobble on the water's glistening surface. When he glanced in the direction of the person addressing him, a small smile spread over his face.

"Miru?" He asked. His smile faded when he noticed that she was being accompanied from the boyfriend she spoke of a month ago.

"Hey," he said with a small wave, "what're you doing here?"

"We were just taking a walk around town." She said.

From beside her, a generic ringtone sounded. Fishing the mobile device out of his back pocket, her boyfriend uttered "Babe, I'm gonna take this real quick."

"Okay." She answered and watched him walk towards the town. "So, how've you been?" She asked Kisame. "Oh." She said when she noticed the black box sitting on the guardrail and the dust adorning Kisame's dark jeans.

"I've been better, honestly." He answered her.

Miru was quiet for a moment, her gaze fixated on the rectangular box before she spoke again. "I heard what happened to Fuguki; I'm sorry." She said, leaning beside him.

"It was bound to happen soon or later." Kisame replied indifferently.

She offered him a sympathetic smile. "He was getting pretty old, I guess." She said. "He didn't want a funeral?"

Kisame shrugged. "I don't know what he wanted. I don't know if he had a will or not."

Miru frowned. "You couldn't find it, Kisame?"

"I didn't look." He gritted out through clenched teeth. It was too soon to be discussing the details of Suikazan's untimely death. And after scattering the man's ashes, Kisame was in a particularly touchy mood at the moment.

"He didn't tell you what he—?"

"No, he didn't tell me what he wanted, he didn't tell me where to find his will, he didn't even mention whether or not he _had_ a will or not, and in case you didn't realize, I'm not even related to him." Kisame growled and bowed his head in defeat. "I'm not family." He whispered.

Miru smiled and placed a comforting hand on his back. "But you were the closest thing he had to a family."

"_Living family_." Kisame pointed out. "All of his relatives are dead. To him, I was just an employee."

Miru chuckled and only because she was Kisame's friend was she spared from getting punched in the face for doing so. "He may have said that Kisame, but based on what you've told me about Fuguki, I think he thought of you as more than family. Trust me."

Kisame nodded, genuinely appreciated of her advice and glanced out of the great blue expanse before them. "I don't think he would've wanted anything as fancy as a funeral." Kisame said and released a short laugh. "If he knew I was planning on giving him a funeral, he'd probably say 'why spend all this money when you could just cremate me and throw me into the river or somethin'?'"

"He probably would say that." Miru said whilst trying to control her own laughter. "So where are you going to stay, then?" She asked suddenly.

The question caught Kisame off guard as he wondered for a split second where he _could_ stay. Then he remembered that he had made arrangements to move in with Itachi on the basis that he found another job within the next week. "I've made arrangements." He said.

"You have?"

"Yup."

"Are you sure?" She asked him. "You wouldn't be lying to me to save your pride, now would you?"

She knew him too well. In the past he might have done just that, but this time he really did make prior arrangements. "Yeah. I've got a place set up."

Miru still held a look of uncertainty. "Alright. If it doesn't work out, come to my place. They'll always be a sofa waiting for you if you need it." She said when her boyfriend started to stalk over to where they were standing.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what?" He asked, shoving his phone back into his pocket. "Babe, are you making decisions without me? What's going on here?"

"I'm fine, Miru. I have a place to stay." Kisame said, holding up a hand to silence her boyfriend. "Trust me. It'll all work out."

The admission seems to soothe her boyfriend, who closed his mouth and let his shoulders drop. The act seems to appease Miru, who offers him a kind, albeit concerned smile in return. "Okay." She said and glanced at her boyfriend. "Well, I'll catch you around, Kisame! Don't be a stranger!"

"See you around." He chuckled as he waved and watched the couple clasp their hands together, walking in the opposite direction. It didn't escape his notice that her boyfriend, when passing him by, shot him a look that said "You got let off easy this time, buddy" and promised severe consequences in the future.

He chuckled to himself as he pictured appearing at Itachi's apartment next week beaten and bruised. _I wonder what he would think of me then…_ He wondered. _He'll probably think I'm a gang leader and refuse to let me room with him._

Slowly but surely, his smile faded as he was reminded of the task looming before him. He couldn't get his hopes high and assume anything until he secured a job first. But before then, he needed to collect a few job applications.

_"__Ya should've done that a long time ago instead of talkin' with yer girlfriend there!" _He could hear Suikazan saying.

And with that, Kisame pushed himself away from the railing and walked in the direction of town before imaginary Suikazan could cuss him out further.

* * *

So Miru's boyfriend makes his debut...so what do we all think of him? (most people who've read this don't like him.)

**Author's note(s):** Miru's boyfriend is supposed to be one of the guys in the manga/anime when Miru makes her appearance. He should be the first man in the Cypher Squad to reprimand her for talking to Kisame - so he's canon. (though I don't know his name)

If you are a regular and were redirected here after seeing the author's note at the beginning of chapter sixteen:

\- Did you like this revision better than the old chapter 15? Why or why not?

If you are new and have just started reading this fic from chapter 1 - now: Have a nice day and please review

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001

PS The next chapter is an Itachi chapter! (It wasn't always an Itachi chapter, but due to revision, it's now an Itachi chapter) To further explain, while writing chapter 19, I decided to add an extra chapter (the next one in line - chapter 16) in between pre-existing ones.


	16. Chapter 16

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: THIS IS THE REVISED CHAPTER I SPOKE OF IN CHAPTER 19. IF YOU HAVE KEPT UP WITH THE STORY AND HAVE BEEN SENT HERE EITHER BEFORE OR AFTER READING CHAPTER 19, YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE.**

**IF YOU JUST FINISHED READING CHAPTER 15 AND HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT, KEEP READING AND HAVE A NICE DAY.**

* * *

"Mom, dad…" Itachi softly spoke. "I don't know what to do." He admitted to the pair of granite headstones that read "FUGAKU UCHIHA; LOVING HUSBAND AND FATHER; BORN 1962 – DIED 2012; MAY YOU REST IN PEACE" and "MIKOTO UCHIHA; DEARLY BELOVED MOTHER AND WIFE; BORN 1967 – DIED 2008, MAY YOU REST IN PEACE."

He knew that the slabs of granite wouldn't respond to him, and if Sasuke were here with him, he'd scoff and say "you know he can't hear you, right?" like he always did when they visited their parents' graves.

But Itachi never cared. In this life, he had only one friend, and that one friend was currently mad at him for trying to make all of his decisions for him. It was Sasuke that kept him up at night. It was Sasuke that invaded his thoughts every hour of every day. It was Sasuke that Itachi wanted to see when he returned from a long day of work, even if he was simply texting on the couch. It was Sasuke who steadied Itachi when he was stressed out and told him to "calm the hell down."

But this time, it was Sasuke that was the cause of all of Itachi's stress, despite Sasuke's reassurance that he could take care of himself.

And it was close proximity of their parents that comforted him in the midst of his turmoil when there was nobody else he could turn to.

"Sasuke's upset with me." He continued. "I…I think I drove him away. He wanted to move out on his own after graduating…he even found an apartment for almost nine-hundred and fifty dollars a month with a two hundred dollar deposit fee." He said.

Their father's death wasn't recent. In fact, it had been six and a half years ago since he passed away, whereas their mother had been gone for almost a decade now. Despite that, Itachi found a lump building in his throat as he recounted his struggles as of late to his parents' headstones.

If he closed his eyes, he could picture them with perfect clarity; their father sitting at the kitchen island, holding a mug of warm tea in his right hand while he read the morning paper using his left hand, a pair of reading glasses perched at the bridge of his nose while their mother washed the dishes.

Itachi seldom came to his parents with personal problems when they were alive. He always felt as though his father looked down on him, viewing him as less of a man if he came to him with his problems. It was the same even when he was a child. _Itachi, _his father would say, _you are an Uchiha boy who'll grow up to be an Uchiha man. How can you thrive on your own if you're always asking others for help?_

It was because of this treatment that he stopped seeking out others when he needed help. This did not, however, stop his mother from talking to him when she noticed that something was wrong. _What's with the long face? Did something happen? _She'd ask him. And when he'd shake his head, she'd stop what she was doing to sit by his side and say _you can talk to me whenever something's bothering you, Itachi. I'll always lend a listening ear._ She'd say with a smile. Itachi usually wouldn't open up to his mother immediately thereafter, but if the problem persisted over the next few days he'd confess what was on his mind.

Now he sat before their graves, wishing that he had talked to them more when he was younger. Even though his father was distant towards Itachi for most of his life, the man was still his father, someone with years of experience that preceded Itachi's own experiences who could lend him advice in a situation like this one.

Someone who not only understood Itachi himself, but understood Sasuke as well.

"But anyways, I think I drove him away." Itachi found himself repeating, too absorbed in his own thoughts to remember where he had previously left off. "He never told me that he wanted to move out after college, and…I guess…I guess I should've figured he would've. I mean, I did the same thing, but I had a job lined up already – a _salaried_ job. Sasuke's main source of income is coming from his part-time job working at the athletic store until he can find a law firm that will accept him." He said.

He glanced up at his parents' headstones, imagining instead their concerned expressions as they sat side by side at the dining room table listening to his testimony. _We'll talk with him_, he could hear his father saying while his mother nodded in agreement.

_If only it was that easy._ He thought.

"How is he ever going to make it on such little money? I've tried to explain to him how quickly his expenses will add up – his car insurance, maintenance, gas money, electric and plumbing, rent," he counted on his fingers, "he isn't even living with a roommate." He sighed, knowing that the next part was the hardest to admit. "I'm in the process of looking for a roommate."

_You are?_ His parents would've said in unison.

"To be specific, I've already found one, but he works at a sandwich shop not far from the apartment where I'm living now. If I only needed a hundred extra dollars a week, I could've easily downsized my cable networking plan. Now that Sasuke moved out, I hardly ever watch anything on TV." He chuckled. "I could probably sell my TV since I can find almost any program on the internet now." He chuckled again and rerouted the course of the conversation back on track. "But yeah. The man lost his job when the auto-shop he worked at went out of business. He said that he lived above the shop, but since the shop is out of business, he's being forced to find another place to live. I've already met with him once and he begged and pleaded with me to give him a chance to prove that he could find as many jobs as need be to help pay his share of the rent so I gave him two weeks to help close the auto-shop and to find another job in addition to the one he already has." He explained.

By this time, if Sasuke were here, he would've been lying next to his father's plot absent mindedly pulling out blades of grass by the fistfuls out of boredom.

_You didn't need a roommate before, why do you need one now? _He could hear his father asking him.

_Is it because you miss Sasuke, dear?_ His mother would ask.

Itachi screwed his eyes shut. Even though he _knew_ that the voices in his head were figments of his imagination, they were questions he'd been asking himself ever since he conjured up this idea of looking for a roommate. Even Sasuke brought both points to his attention when they visited their mother a little over two weeks ago.

_"__It would save you the work of living with another person because I know you, Itachi. You'd sooner sell your car than live with a total stranger if it meant saving money. This is just a shallow attempt to get me to change my mind so that I can come crawling back to you so you won't be lonely, even if you're not saying it." _Sasuke had said.

Itachi let out a heavy sigh, hoping that it would clear the muddled thoughts in his head as well as the lump in his throat, and alleviate the pressure he was beginning to feel in his chest. It did none of that. If anything, it made him feel even emptier on the inside. "I don't know. I told Sasuke that I needed a roommate so that I could start paying off my student loans or save up for retirement." He explained. "I guess, at the time, I told myself it was in case Sasuke changed his mind, so that he'd still have a place to return to if things didn't work out in his favor. I don't know what I would've done about my roommate, but I would've figured out a way to make it work. Sasuke thinks that it's a plan to get him to consider looking for a roommate to help out with his rent, but that was never the reason."

At least, not that he admitted to himself, it wasn't.

"He also thinks that I want a roommate to replace him, to fill the void or something. I don't know. I mean, I miss him. I miss him every day. I'm constantly worried that he's getting himself into trouble or that he's struggling without me." He said. "I guess…I guess I've just grown so used to having him around that it's hard not seeing him as often anymore. But what was I supposed to do?"

At this, he hoped that if Mikoto were here, she'd place a comforting arm around his neck and say _It's alright, honey; Sasuke's growing up and moving on. You're still his big brother, and if anything ever happens, he'll come to you first._

At this point, Itachi doubted that he was the _first_ person Sasuke would turn to for help.

_I know that it's hard,_ his mother would continue while rubbing circles on his back, _but it's all part of growing up. Your father and I felt the same way when you went to college so far away from home. And even before you graduated you were looking for places to live in the area where you went to school which meant that we'd be seeing less and less of you, but that was okay because you were growing up and becoming more independent. And we were proud of you for doing so._

That was exactly what his mother would say had she still been alive. And although it made Itachi feel slightly better about his situation, it didn't solve anything. "But I'm worried that something will happen to him. The night he told me that he was moving out, he went to a bar and got drunk. What happens if he's struggling financially and turns to alcohol to solve all his problems?

_Then let him learn the hard way._ Fugaku would say.

This was why Itachi never went to his father for advice in the first place. "What if he gets himself killed in a car accident because he was out drinking and exceeded the limit?"

_The risk of that happening would be the same even if he was still living with you, honey._ Mikoto would say.

Itachi shook his head and felt tears coming to his eyes as he relived the vivid dream he had almost two weeks earlier that still haunted him to this day. "No…it wouldn't…because I would know that he was planning to go to the bar, even if he didn't tell me, I'd have an idea as to where I could find him. If he was mad, I could calm him down and talk some sense into him. I…" he started and realized that he really didn't know what he would do if such a thing happened. The risk of Sasuke getting killed in a car accident due to drunk driving was still a factor, whether he lived with Itachi or not. _What would I do then?_ He asked himself.

_See?_

His mother was right. Even if Sasuke still lived with him, the risk remained the same and there was nothing Itachi could do to prevent it from happening. "What do I do?" He asked again, reiterating his earlier question.

_Continue on with your life_. Fugaku would've told him. _Sasuke is an adult now. Soon or later, you know he would've moved out. Almost everyone does once they graduate college so it's only natural that he would want to do so too. There's nothing you can do about it but wait and see how it turns out. Maybe he'll do something stupid. Maybe he'll get in trouble. Maybe he'll go a week living off instant ramen like that blonde kid he used to be friends with because he spent all his money on something pointless. Maybe it won't work out and he'll come back. Or maybe it will work out and he'll come pay you a visit._

And true to her character, Mikoto would nod in agreement with her husband's words and add _You're father's right, Itachi. The only thing you can do now is wait and see how things turn out. If Sasuke needs something, he'll ask for it._

_But not immediately. Your younger brother's always been a stubborn one._ Fugaku would say.

And Mikoto would laugh. _Sasuke always has been very stubborn, yes. But you have to trust him for now. I know it's hard, but try to keep your mind off of it for a little while._

_Devote your energy into something constructive like your work._ Fugaku would suggest.

_But don't work yourself so hard that you get sick. _Mikoto would say.

Itachi nodded. So far, that's what he had been doing in Sasuke's absence, devoting all of his time and energy into his work. And although he might have taken it to the extremes, it was better than sitting around worrying himself to death and calling Sasuke every other day. He feared that if he did that, Sasuke would probably stop talking to him altogether out of aggravation.

_He's probably already aggravated with me, though._ Itachi thought forlornly and rose to his feet. "Thank you, mom, dad." He said, nodding to each headstone. He stretched a little, balancing first on the balls of his feet and then the tips of his toes as he extended his arms towards the blistering sun. Dusting off the bottoms of his black jeans, he turned to leave, but before he left, there was one last thing he needed to say to Fugaku in particular.

"Happy father's day, dad."

* * *

Okay, so I know that it's a little early for Father's Day and had I waited a couple of weeks, this chapter would've been appropriate. However, the story is progressing quickly and because of that, I'd like to ease this chapter in before I get too far ahead and you all get confused.

You may be asking why I wrote this chapter. As I was working out the dates for future chapters, Father's Day crossed my mind and I immediately thought "Shit. That would've been a perfect way to break up all those Kisame chapters!" which led me to wonder (and cross my fingers) if the story had started before or after Mother's Day. Of course, with my dumb luck, it started before, which led me to question what the Uchiha brothers were doing the day of. Simply put, Sasuke was suffering from a hangover (see chapter 4). That being said, I wrote this chapter deciding that it would be a nice installment to the story.

Tell me what you think!

~Sasori33-001

PS For those of you who were not sent here before/after reading chapter 19, the next chapter is a Kisame chapter.


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note: In addition to this account, I also have an AO3 account as well that I've been starting to post old works on (nothing that isn't already posted on here! So don't worry!) and when posting this chapter I realized that it was the exact same as chapter 18 and had to dig through my various flash drives to find the correct version of chapter 17 (which is posted below). I must have wrote this chapter two Junes ago and I am just now realizing that there was a duplicate chapter that nobody thought to tell me about! *huff* Anywho, this is the correct version of chapter seventeen and I am astounded by how long it took me to catch this error!**

**Without further ado, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

At 2:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, Kisame decided to finally get up and start the second part of his day.

After scattering Suikazan's ashes in the river beneath the bridge, he'd scoured the town in search of establishments with "help wanted" and "now hiring" signs plastered in the fronts of their windows. At the end of the day, he'd collected ten applications ranging from a janitor for a local middle school to sales associate for the appliance section of a department store.

Although he was excited about the job at the department store, he lost hope when four days had passed by and the manager still hadn't gotten back to Kisame to schedule an interview. Had the circumstances been different, he might have waited longer for a response, but because he had a looming deadline before him, he had to consider other alternatives. The middle school janitorial job, on the other hand, scheduled an interview with him the day after he picked up an application, but Kisame refused. Most of the work he'd be doing would be after the students went home for the day, and wouldn't end long into the night, which Kisame didn't mind. A set schedule such as that, however, would conflict with his job at the sandwich shop which operated from 7:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. at night and even though Kisame never worked from open to close, he told his manager that he had open availability when he applied and didn't want to go back on that.

In the end, he found a job at a convenience store close to Itachi's apartment building that promised flexible hours and could easily work around Kisame's schedule at the sandwich shop. It paid slightly less than the janitorial job would have but Itachi didn't specify how much money he needed to make between his two jobs, only that he needed a second job within the allotted two week time frame.

Having just started the day before, Kisame had worked two shifts so far. This morning was his first time working a morning shift which had started at 6 a.m. and ended at noon, leaving him fatigued when he returned back to the shop.

His shift at the sandwich shop started at 6 p.m. later that evening, which meant that he needed to call Itachi before then and leave him a message letting him know that he'd succeeded in finding another job.

_"I hope he kept his word."_ Kisame thought as he pulled his phone out from the jeans he discarded onto the floor when he arrived home. Itachi seemed like a man of his word, but maybe if someone more fit to help Itachi pay his rent came along, perhaps he'd wasted no time in throwing his offer to Kisame out the window without conversing with him prior to doing so.

Pushing the thought aside, he dialed Itachi's number in hopes that the man had kept his promise.

As expected, it went straight to the answering machine and prompted Kisame to leave his name and a brief message. "Hey, Itachi, it's me, Kisame Hoshigaki. I met with you last week to discuss the ad you placed in the newspaper about seeking a roommate. I just wanted to let you know that I've found a second job at a convenience store just down the road from your apartment and just started yesterday…I also wanted to let you know that I'm working at the sandwich shop from six to ten thirty tonight if you call back. Thanks. Bye." He said and ended the call.

He only hoped that Itachi was the man Kisame thought he was and upheld his end of the deal.

-8-8-8-

Forty-five minutes later, his question was answered when he received a call from Itachi. "Hello?" Kisame answered.

_"Kisame?"_ Itachi's voice sounded from the other end of the line. _"It's Itachi. I received your call earlier and I see you've found yourself another job in addition to the one you have at Hozuki's, correct?"_

"That's correct, yes."

_"I also understand that you'll be working for the remainder of the evening, so would it be possible for you to stop by sometime tomorrow afternoon with some sort of proof of employment?"_ Itachi asked.

"What time tomorrow afternoon?"

Itachi thought about this for a moment before responding. _"I don't leave work until five o'clock, and it takes me half an hour to return home, so five thirty at the earliest."_

His shift at the convenience store started at 6 p.m. tomorrow, which left him enough time to stop by Itachi's apartment to show him his proof of employment, but didn't leave him much time to do anything else. "If I showed you some proof of employment, when is the earliest I can move in?"

_"You can move in immediately thereafter if you desire."_

Kisame owned very few possessions, a few boxes of clothes, some toiletries and bedding was all he really needed to take with him. If he took one of Suikazan's cars, he'd be able to move his things all at once and still make it to his second job on time. "I can do that."

On the other end of the line, Itachi made a noise of approval._ "Then can I expect to see you at five-thirty tomorrow afternoon?"_

"Yes."

* * *

The next chapter is set to be a Kisame chapter~

Until next time,

Itachi's Husband


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's note:** If you are unaware that Suikazan (Kisame's boss) has been cremated instead of being given a traditional funeral with a casket and everything, then I strongly encourage you to go back and read the chapter 15 edit (and by edit I mean most of the chapter has been revised). Thanks! ~Sasori33-001

* * *

After being home for an hour and a half and with two hours to go before he met up with Itachi again, Kisame sat amongst his old apartment above the auto shop and marveled how a little tidying up could transform the space into something completely different.

Ever since he could remember, the place had always been a mess. Even the day he moved in, the place was trashed with old car parts, discarded soda cans and beer bottles, stray cigarette butts, tools, crates and tires.

"It's a little messy, but then again, I don't have to give you a place to stay now do I?" Suikazan said and clapped him on the back with a wheezy laugh.

Suikazan was right, though. As long as he had a place to call home, Kisame didn't mind the mess. Overtime, he was able to clear out the clutter and find creative ways to organize it in the shop itself. Not that Suikazan ever really cared. And with the clutter gone, Kisame busied himself working to pay his rent while saving up his money for a few other luxuries like a mini fridge and a cell phone. The TV was at least a decade, maybe even two decades old and had been among the clutter when Kisame moved in.

Surprisingly, after twenty-two years, the thing still worked save for during inclement weather. For that reason alone, Kisame was packing it up as well and taking it to Itachi's apartment in case Itachi himself didn't own one and for sentimental reasons.

It made sense that if Itachi could afford to live in such a luxurious apartment building that he could afford a nice big screen TV. However, Itachi didn't strike Kisame as the type of man to enjoy such a "mindless activity like watching TV for hours on end" he could hear Itachi saying.

Without the TV as its focal point, the beaten recliner he'd purchased from a yard sale several years ago now sat staring into blank space. Of all of the possessions he was going to be leaving behind, the recliner was what he was going to miss the most. He'd eaten many meals sitting in that chair and watched so many television programs that the thing always sat reclined due to the mountains of clothes piled high all around it; an island in and of itself.

Originally intended by the architect as an in-law suite built above the garage, Suikazan never used it for that purpose, or at least, not to Kisame's knowledge. It was equipped with a full bathroom and a small kitchen complete with countertops, a sink and overhead cabinets but lacked a full-size fridge and an oven to cook with. Instead, he'd compensated by filling the gap meant for the refrigerator with the mini-fridge he'd saved up his money for and opted to microwave all of his meals (another amenity he'd saved up to buy).

The microwave, he could bear to part with. The mini-fridge, however, was a different story, and one that he'd weighed the pros and cons of bringing along with him to Itachi's apartment. On one hand, Itachi most likely had a full-sized fridge. On the other hand, how convenient would it be to have a fridge in his bedroom for when he got hungry in the middle of the night?

He chuckled to himself. _I'm already turning it into my apartment above the shop, and I haven't even moved in yet,_ he thought.

That left only the broken bedframe and mattress he'd found amid the clutter when Suikazan took him in. Again, he assumed that he would be provided a place to sleep once he moved in with Itachi (the man didn't explicitly tell him what he was to bring with him.) Worst case scenario, he'd spend his first couple of nights or so sleeping on the couch until he found the time to transport his old mattress there.

If that was case, he needed to find a way to conceal the large spaghetti stain adorning the mattress's surface from when he was too impatient to wait for his sheets to finish drying (also stained from the same dish that evening). That was back before he'd located the recliner he currently owned today which sported its fair share of stains from over the years.

In the end, Kisame left everything be. He didn't know what would happen to this place now that Suikazan was dead. He feared that if (or when) the state arrived to claim the property, they wouldn't hesitate to kick him out like the squatter he was.

Kisame knew that he wasn't a squatter. He worked for Suikazan in return for a place to live. But without Suikazan's will concerning the fate of the property after his death, Kisame didn't have much of a fighting chance explaining that he himself still lived here.

And still wanted to.

Kisame arrived at Itachi's apartment building at 5 p.m., half an hour earlier than the time that he and Itachi had agreed upon simply because he was hoping that Itachi would arrive sooner than 5:30 so that he could review his employment papers and Kisame could quickly move in his possessions and get to Hozuki's in time for his evening shift.

He paced the length of the lobby, clad in his khaki pants and green polo shirt. He knew that compared to the well-to-do business men and women who passed him by in their freshly dry-cleaned suits and expensive briefcases, he looked like a delivery boy without anything to deliver.

He didn't belong here, and he knew it, but he earned the chance to stay here and would do whatever it took to keep that opportunity, even if it was only for a little while.

He pushed his hand into his pocket and fingered the folded piece of paper that stated that he was an employee of Terumi Convenience. As an added measure, he brought along his nametag pin which he kept in his other pocket.

"Sir? Do you need directions?" A woman behind the receptionist desk was asking him.

Kisame shook his head. "No, I'm just waiting for a friend." He answered.

The receptionist nodded. "Okay." She said and busied herself with a pile of paperwork.

It felt weird to refer to Itachi as being his friend when in reality he was just a stranger Kisame had only met two weeks ago. Besides Miru, Suikazan was the only person Kisame considered as being a true friend.

"Oh. You're here." A familiar voice said from behind him.

Immediately Kisame pulled himself out of his daydreaming and pivoted on his heel to meet eyes with Itachi.

Itachi glanced at his wrist watch. "You're fifteen minutes early."

Kisame shrugged awkwardly and produced his employment papers from his pocket, handing them to Itachi. "My shift at Hozuki's starts at six so I thought I'd come a little earlier."

Itachi briefly glanced over the papers Kisame handed him and slowly nodded before giving them back to him. "Yes, I remember discussing that over the phone last night." He said. "Your papers seem to be in order too."

_Is it really that easy?_ Kisame wondered when Itachi produced a golden key from his pocket. As if on auto-pilot, Kisame extended a hand to receive the proof that he actually had a home to (partially) call his own now, a confirmation that things were starting to look up for him.

"Where are your things?" Itachi asked, glancing around the lobby. "Did you bring them with you or were you planning to bring everything later?"

"They're down the street." Kisame answered. At Itachi's blank look, Kisame elaborated. "I drove here, but I couldn't find a place to park, so I parked down the street."

"You drove here?" Itachi asked. "You never mentioned that you had a car."

_What is the best way to word this?_ "It's not technically my car; I borrowed it so I could move my stuff back and forth. I'll be returning it after work tonight."

Itachi nodded, satisfied with Kisame's answer. "That's good, because if you _did_ own a car, I'd have to get you a parking permit, but since you don't, I don't need to worry about it." He said and checked the time. "How long does it take to get to Hozuki's from here?"

"10 minutes by car."

"Then we have approximately twenty minutes to move your things. Do you have much?" Itachi asked him.

He shook his head. "Just one big box and a television set."

Itachi nodded. "Let me put my laptop bag upstairs and I'll help you move your things."

"Okay." Kisame replied, content to wait in the lobby for Itachi to return. Although he might have gotten the box into the truck with very little difficulty, transporting it down a crowded street by himself might prove more challenging, especially without the help of the dollies at the shop.

He was brought to attention when he noticed Itachi holding the elevator door open for him to follow. "Coming? You might as well familiarize yourself with the place while you can, right?"

It took a moment for him to fully process Itachi's words before he jogged to catch up with him. "Right." He parroted. _That's right; I live here now, don't I?_ He thought to himself and waited for the elevator door to close before them.

Once the carrier started to ascend, Kisame was reminded of the age old adage. _When one door closes, another one opens._

* * *

And with that, we conclude the six chapter Kisame arc and embark on Itachi's pursuits next time! (Meaning, the next few chapters will be Itachi chapters). I'm really excited for what's to come, which means that y'all should be excited too!

Also, I'd like to give a really big shout-out to The Secret Sal for being the ONLY person who reviews this story. For the other 11 - 30 people who care enough about the plot to continue reading past chapter 2 on, please leave a review telling me what you liked/didn't like or what could've been done better. I created an account to get feedback that my friends don't have time to give me, and seeing as you people read this story because you do have time tells me that you can give me some sort of feedback or something. It would mean a lot and probably help me update faster. Thanks!

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001


	19. Chapter 19

**Author's Note:** First of all, I'd like to say that revision is a bitch. Second, for all of you who are caught up with the story and wondering why it has 2 new chapters when you only see 1 - I've added a new chapter into the mix;** chapter 16 is new**, trust me. Instead of being the chapter where Kisame moves in with Itachi, it's a chapter where Itachi visits his parents' graves alone. Please read it (either before or after you read this chapter, which _is_ new; it makes no difference to the plot of the story) it's well worth the read, I promise!

* * *

After a week of living with Itachi, Kisame learned three things about his new roommate.

Firstly, Itachi was _not_ a morning person.

He first learned of Itachi's sleeping habits when his alarm sounded at 7:30 Wednesday morning. Groggy after working until midnight at the convenience store the previous night, he wanted to catch as many Z's as possible before having to show up for his morning shift at Hozuki's at nine. He had just swiped the "snooze" button on his phone and buried his head into his pillow when he heard a faint noise coming from outside his room.

Lifting his head up, he listened more closely and figured that it must have been Itachi's alarm going off and attempted to get another ten or fifteen minutes of shuteye before getting up and getting ready for the day.

When he finally lifted himself out of bed at 7:45, he was surprised to find Itachi darting out the door, slamming it on his way out. At the time, Kisame simply shrugged his shoulders and headed for the bathroom to shower. It wasn't any of his business so he wasn't going to make a big deal about it.

Two days later, after returning from graveyard shift at the convenience store, he entered the apartment at 7:15 to find Itachi's alarm sounding again, loudly enough to permeate the walls of his bedroom and emanate throughout the rest of the unit. Again, it wasn't any of Kisame's business, and after a long morning of work, all Kisame wanted to do was pass out in bed until he needed to get ready for his second job later that afternoon.

After five minutes, Itachi's alarm stopped and Kisame had stripped out of his uniform, ready to collapse onto his bed.

On the edge of consciousness, he could have sworn he heard Itachi's alarm going off fifteen minutes later in the far distance before he succumbed to his fatigue.

Second, Kisame noticed that Itachi was not a social person.

Sure, Kisame could've reached that conclusion the first day that he met Itachi. The man was straight forward and didn't play games. The questions he asked Kisame were straight to the point and indicative of his profession in the business world; a world where men and women alike didn't care for the reason behind the circumstances that led you to where you were, or promises that you'll do whatever it took to achieve your goal. The only thing that mattered to people like Itachi was definitive answers and solid proof and nothing in between.

But Kisame was never one to judge other people upon first meeting them. After all, Itachi might have had a long day at work and simply wanted to make dinner and relax for the rest of the night. Who wouldn't? Kisame knew he had his fair share of those days working at the shop and in the end, the man had given Kisame a second chance so Kisame would do the same.

Since moving in, however, Kisame never saw much of his roommate. Granted, Itachi had a steady job from eight to five Monday through Friday whereas Kisame worked two odd jobs with fluctuating hours; it stood to reason that the two wouldn't cross paths very often. There were times, however, that Kisame had some spare time between jobs in the evening when he knew Itachi had returned home from work, but hadn't seen him to know if he was still there.

"You're home?" Kisame once asked from the kitchen when Itachi appeared from his bedroom.

"Yes. Why? Do you need something?" Itachi answered as he passed Kisame by.

Kisame quickly shook his head. He could count the number of times he and Itachi had spoken face-to-face using both – maybe even one – hand, which made conversation between them awkward. "I just didn't hear you, so I assumed you went out or something."

Itachi shook his head as he fetched a ceramic mug from one of the overhead cupboards. "I'm doing some work in my bedroom. That's all."

This meant that there were times when Itachi was in the apartment, but made so little noise that Kisame was unaware of his presence. Why he didn't conduct his work at the breakfast nook or on the couch in the living room, Kisame did not know. He liked to think that he was quiet enough for Itachi to get on with his work with him in the room, but maybe the presence of another person distracted him.

In the end, Kisame simply dismissed it as Itachi being less-social than he and left it at that.

Lastly, the man rarely ate, a fact Kisame stumbled across purely on accident through a random act of kindness bundled up in a Hozuki sub.

"Is that your lunch?" Itachi asked him when he arrived home one day with a sub in hand. He was leaning against the kitchen counter while his coffee machine whirred to life.

"Yeah, why? Did you want some? I can split it." Kisame offered, holding the sub out to his roommate.

Itachi shook his head, retrieving the steaming mug from its chamber in the machine. "No thank you."

"Are you sure?" Kisame asked him. "I don't mind shari—"

"I already ate." He explained.

Kisame stayed put, watching Itachi retreat into his bedroom where he spent all of his free time and glanced down at the sub in his hand. _I'll eat half of it anyways in case he changes his mind_. Kisame decided and opened up the wrapping.

He picked up half of the sub and started to retreat to his own bedroom before deciding to watch TV instead. Although he brought his old TV set from Suikazan's, Itachi owned a HD flat screen and he'd be a fool not to take advantage of the opportunity since Itachi never watched it. In this way, he could catch Itachi if he re-emerged from his bedroom and tell him that he left half a sub for him.

By 11pm, it was clear that his roommate wasn't going to make another appearance tonight, leaving Kisame to get ready for his graveyard shift at the convenience store. He dressed himself quickly as he had showered before leaving for his shift at Hozuki's earlier and longingly glanced at the sub still lying out on counter.

_I told myself I'd save this for him if he changed his mind,_ Kisame thought, glancing at the door to Itachi's bedroom, _but he said he wasn't hungry and I need something to eat before I go to work again…_

Unwrapping the remainder of the sub, Kisame brought it up to his face and sunk his teeth in, deciding at that moment that he would bring Itachi a sub the next opportunity he was given.

Said opportunity arose Sunday afternoon when Kisame returned from Hozuki's at 2:14pm. It was a stretch to assume that Itachi hadn't eaten anything yet. However, given Itachi's sleep schedule, it was safe to say that the man ate a late breakfast upon waking up this morning and would probably be hungry later on in the day. If not, he could always eat it for dinner.

_I just hope he likes it._ Kisame thought to himself as waited for the elevator to reach their floor. He requested a simple club sandwich since he didn't know what Itachi liked. That was a safe bet, right? Who didn't like turkey sandwiches with tomatoes and lettuce?

As per usual, Itachi was nowhere to be seen when Kisame stepped inside the unit. _He's probably in his bedroom._ He dismissed, placing the sandwich on the countertop for Itachi to see. Kisame could've just as easily knocked on his roommate's door, alerting him to the fact that there was a sandwich waiting for him. He did not out of respect for the man's privacy. Besides, if Itachi was hungry, he'd reemerge from his room at some point or another, right?

"I brought you a sandwich." Kisame told him when he exited his bedroom three hours later.

Itachi turned his head in the direction of the counter where the abandoned sandwich sat and replied "No thank you, I'm not very hungry at the moment."

_Do you ever eat?_ "Take it anyways. I got it for free."

Itachi shook his head as he opened one of the overhead cupboards. "That's okay." He refused.

"Then refrigerate it." He said matter-of-factly. "It's a cold sub. Eat it for dinner later or take it to work with you tomorrow and eat it for lunch or something."

"That's nice of you to offer, Kisame, but I d—"

"Just take it." Kisame said, cutting him off. "You're always so busy working in your bedroom that I never see you eat anything." He said. "So I thought I'd bring you something quick to eat while you work. You don't have to eat it tonight; bring it to work with you tomorrow or eat it for dinner tomorrow night." He didn't really know what Itachi usually ate for breakfast in his haste to get to work on time or even what he ate for lunch while he was at work.

_If he works just as hard as he does when he's here, I can imagine that he doesn't really eat lunch either._ Kisame thought, thankful he wasn't a part of the corporate business world like Itachi. Kisame valued food far too much to pursue such a career.

"Alright." Itachi sighed in resignation, placing the sub on the middle shelf of the fridge. "I'll take it with me to work tomorrow."

Kisame rose from his seat on the couch and turned the corner to his bedroom, concealing a winning smile. _I finally did something right._

* * *

And so concludes chapter 19...I wrote this chapter in a bit of a rush because I've been working tirelessly on it for a week now and was finally struck with the inspiration I needed to continue it last night!

I expect chapter 20 to be updated within the very near future (hopefully tomorrow; I've already started it and probably could've finished if I didn't have to get ready for work). I promise the next chapter will be an Itachi chapter! (I'm so excited, because the plot is beginning to thicken~)

Until next time!

~Sasori33-001

**AN ADDITIONAL REMINDER:** Chapter 16 is new, causing the old chapters 16 and 17 become chapters 17 and 18. If you haven't already, I strongly encourage y'all to go back and read it; Itachi visits his parents' graves alone and comes to terms with some of the problems he's been dealing with concerning Sasuke.


	20. Chapter 20

I said I would update either yesterday or today, and I delivered *takes a graceful bow* Enjoy~

* * *

Itachi slowly opened his eyes to the obnoxious chiming of his phone alarm and willed himself to stay awake.

In one swift action, he thrust the comforter off of his tired body, allowing the cool air of the room chill his body.

He glanced over to his phone, which had stopped sounding. _Do I want to know how late it is?_ He wondered. The answer didn't matter. He knew he slept through his alarm at least twice, maybe even three times and that it was later than he would've wanted to wake up. Reaching out to the bedside table where his phone sat, he picked it up and illuminated the screen.

7:36am.

Itachi groaned. Moving on auto-pilot, his legs swung over the bed, one followed by the other, while he lifted his upper body from the warm confines of his bed. He stretched his arms high above his head and yawned. _I should've been in the shower by now._ He thought, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

Rising to his feet, he plucked his cell from its spot on the bedside table, taking it into the shower with him. In this manner, he would be able to silence the alarm when it sounded again. While it would've been easier to simply turn it off altogether, he feared that he'd be too tired at the end of the day to turn it back on. If that were to happen, he'd surely be late for work the following day. And given his track record as of late, he couldn't afford to be any later than he already was.

Before undressing, he turned the shower dial between hot and cold and adjusted it so that it was on the colder side. While an ice cold shower would definitely wake him up, it would also give him a terrible headache which was not the way he wanted to start off his Monday morning.

Just then, his alarm sounded from its resting place beside the sink, and this time, Itachi was ready for it, quickly dismissing it.

For weeks now, Itachi wondered if his neighbors were at all bothered by the intensity of his alarm. He'd never personally met his next door neighbors; for all he knew, he might not have had any next door neighbors to bother. However, ever since Kisame moved in, he often worried if the man could hear his alarm from his bedroom. Itachi felt sorry of course, as Kisame often worked during the early hours of the morning at the convenience store, returning before Itachi even woke up. But so far, he never brought it up.

At least, not yet.

But what other alternative did he have? Itachi couldn't remember having one night of sleep where he woke up rejuvenated and ready to start the day since Sasuke moved out. In the time since then, he tried everything from checking his alarm to make sure it was set to the correct time to increasing the volume on his phone to its max to going to bed earlier at night.

And still he found himself pressing his forehead against the wall of the shower while water cascaded over him wishing that he could get just a few more hours of sleep.

_Should I see a doctor about this?_ He asked himself, pushing against the shower wall to continue washing himself.

"What seems to be the problem, Mr. Uchiha?" The doctor would ask.

"I've been exceedingly tired, lately." He'd say.

"Have you been stressed out lately?" The doctor would ask.

And Itachi would awkwardly shrug before answering. "I've been busy with work lately…"

Any doctor would tell him that his work was the cause of his fatigue recently. _Kisame_ could even tell him that his work was the reason for his lack of energy. Why take time out of his day to see a specialist when he himself already knew the answer?

At 8:06am, Itachi should've been at work already or at least in on his way to work. Instead, he found himself stuffing his laptop in his bag along with all of the documents he had been working on the night before that he was too tired to properly put away before retreating to bed.

Upon exiting his bedroom, he nearly collided with Kisame who was heading towards the kitchen.

"Itachi?" Kisame exclaimed, pulling his phone from the pocket of his khaki's. "Aren't you supposed to be at work by now?"

"I should've been on the road half an hour ago, yes." He explained as he rushed out the door, not waiting to hear Kisame's reply. _If the roads aren't busy, I might make it there by 8:30._ He thought in the elevator. "If" being the key word here.

After an exhausting eight hours staring at thousands of numbers, numerous spreadsheets and countless calculations, making conversation with his new roommate was the last thing he wanted to do when he returned to his apartment that evening.

"There you are!" Kisame smiled, lounging on the sofa with his cell phone in his hand. "I was thinking of ordering pizza. Want any?"

_Why must he insist on feeding me?_ Itachi frowned as he untied his shoes. "No thank you. I'm still full from lunch." He lied, mentally kicking himself when he realized that Kisame expected him to eat the sub he brought home for him the night before. In his haste to arrive to work on time, he had forgotten to bring the sub Kisame brought him the evening before, and due to the hellish traffic he encountered on the way there, he didn't even have time to get anything to eat for breakfast.

"Really? You're full from eating a club sandwich at lunch time?" Kisame asked him, knitting his eyebrows together in confusion.

"I went out to eat with a couple of co-workers for lunch today." He lied. "I ate a rather big lunch and I'm still full."

"Somebody's birthday?" Kisame asked.

Having assumed that Kisame was done talking, Itachi walked over to the fridge to put away his half eaten bagel with cream cheese he'd eaten for lunch instead. "Yeah."

"How old are they?"

"Forty-three." Itachi replied, unfazed by how easily the lies passed his lips. For the most part, he considered himself a relatively honest person, somebody who could be trusted, but when a stranger inquired about his personal life, even if that stranger was his new roommate, he resorted to whatever he needed to say to protect himself.

Even if that meant putting up walls and telling countless lies.

Aware that the subject matter of his lies concerned something as trivial as his eating habits, it was a topic that made Itachi self-conscious, regardless. He knew that his eating habits weren't outstanding recently, but Kisame didn't need to know the reason why.

"I've been working myself to death in a feeble attempt to distract myself from constantly worrying about my younger brother." He imagined explaining to Kisame.

While Kisame wasn't dumb by any means, describing the nature of his relationship with Sasuke was one of the last things Itachi wanted to spend his evening doing. How could this man ever understand when he had never even met Sasuke? The answer was simple: he couldn't.

"Hello, I'd like to order a large pizza." Kisame spoke into the phone.

With Kisame distracted, Itachi took the opportunity to retreat to his bedroom. Once inside, he walked over to the desk where he sat his bag, carefully removing the sleek laptop from its inner confines and set it on his desk.

Strolling over to the bed, he briefly considered whether or not to take his bagel from earlier out of the fridge. He eventually decided against it, as doing so would prompt another conversation from his loquacious roommate.

_He'll probably ask if I want to watch TV with him next._ Itachi mused as he loosened his necktie. _But if I don't make myself a cup of coffee soon, I won't accomplish very much. _Wanting to minimize the amount of social interaction with Kisame as much as possible, he decided to at least _start_ his work until the numbers on the screen started to blur together. Only then would he allow himself to make a cup of coffee.

_That'll be my fourth cup today…_Itachi considered.

Rising to his feet, he walked the short distance from his bed to his desk, determined not to let himself fall prey to the comfort of his bed as he did so many times the week before. Thankfully, Kisame was too busy working one of his two jobs to notice anything out of the ordinary.

_He hasn't known me long enough to know what can be construed as being ordinary behavior verses unordinary behavior._ He thought to himself, lifting the lid of his laptop to begin with his work.

Even so, Kisame's words the night before still lingered in the back of his head.

_"__Just take it." Kisame said, cutting him off. "You're always so busy working in your bedroom that I never see you eat anything." He said. "So I thought I'd bring you something quick to eat while you work. You don't have to eat it tonight; bring it to work with you tomorrow or eat it for dinner tomorrow night."_

With his cursor positioned above the Excel icon, ready to open his work and continue where he left off earlier, he made a split second decision to open up the internet instead.

"Fatigue and loss of appetite." Itachi whispered under his breath as he typed the words into the search query.

The results yielded a variety of explanations as Itachi expected. Scanning the top search results, he noticed various blogs detailing his symptoms, tips for healthy living (which he had no desire to read), and a myriad of health articles describing the symptoms for ailments such as Addison's disease, anemia and cirrhosis.

"Pale skin…" Itachi read under the description of anemia. "I've always been pale." He muttered, examining his right forearm. Unable to tell if he was any paler than usual, he continued to read. "Weakness, dizziness…" _Not that I remember lately…_

_"__Symptoms of Addison's disease includes fatigue, lethargy, muscle weakness, low mood or irritability, __**loss of appetite**__…_" The heading under an article titled "Addison's Disease" read.

While he was exhibiting symptoms of fatigue, lethargy, and loss of appetite, he hadn't shown any muscle weakness besides the time when he was helping Kisame to carry his outdated television up to their apartment. _Even if I was in perfect health, I'm sure I still would've struggled while carrying that thing._ He knew that Kisame was older than him, but the TV he owned had to have been older than Kisame himself if appearance was anything to go by.

"Low mood or irritability…" Itachi reread. He'd been in a low mood ever since Sasuke told him of his plans to move out which had been a little over a month ago. _Surely that's not a symptom…_ He dismissed. As far as irritability went, the only evidence he needed of that was currently watching TV in the next room, waiting to engage in a conversation with him when he ventured out to fix himself a cup of coffee.

_"__**Cirrhosis – fatigue, nausea, decreased appetite, weight loss…**__" _Itachi read aloud. Of all the symptoms listed, nausea was the only one he hadn't felt and read the subtext underneath the heading. _"Cirrhosis is chronic scarring of the liver."_ It read. Itachi had seen enough medical dramas in his life to know if there was a problem with his liver. "There'd be more obvious signs." He rationalized. Yellowing skin and corneas were telltale signs of liver damage, right? Although it had been a while since Itachi examined the color of his corneas in the mirror, Kisame would've commented on it when he arrived back home.

_"Depression (major depression) symptoms: Memory difficulties or personality changes, __**fatigue, loss of appetite**__, sleep problems, aches…" _He read, his eyes widening with the realization that he could be depressed.

Immediately he clicked on the link and scrolled down to the list of symptoms commonly associated with depression. _"Feelings of sadness…sleep disturbances, including insomnia or sleeping too much, tiredness and lack of energy…changes in appetite – often reduced appetite and weight loss…anxiety, agitation or restlessness…trouble thinking…"_

And with every new bulleted item on the list, Itachi found himself wondering how long he'd been this way.

_"__Then downsize." _Sasuke had suggested at the cemetery, in reference to his decision to save money by looking for a roommate_. "It would save you the work of living with another person because I know you, Itachi. You'd sooner sell your car than live with a total stranger if it meant saving money. This is just a shallow attempt to get me to change my mind so that I can come crawling back to you so you won't be lonely, even if you're not saying it."_ He remembered Sasuke saying.

Back then, Sasuke's words hurt. And ever since that day, Itachi hung on those words and asked himself if there was truth in Sasuke's statement. Was he really just doing all of this to convince Sasuke to change his mind? Was he being selfish for wanting his younger brother to make the best decisions so that he didn't get hurt in the end?

These were the questions Itachi asked himself on his way to work every morning and afternoon while the radio played in the background. These were the questions he thought about when his work wasn't making any sense.

It was these questions that kept him up late at night as he thought of things he could've said or done to result in a different outcome.

It was Sasuke's words that made Itachi throw himself into his work with more vigor than before, going as far to take it home with him and working through the weekends on projects that could've easily waited until Monday morning. It was his increased work ethic that depleted all of his energy each day and caused him to forget about lunch.

But above all, it was Sasuke's unwillingness to talk to him that made him this way.

* * *

Albeit a crucial installment to the plot, this chapter was difficult to write! But I'm glad that it's written and excited for the next chapter which is also set to be an Itachi chapter.

Don't forget to review! (I know you won't, The Secret Sal ;) )

Until next time~

Sasori33-001

PS I'll probably get around to updating sometime within the next week (no promises, though!) Feel free to check my profile page where I frequently update story statuses if you're ever curious about my progress.


	21. Chapter 21

It's June 9th, so you know what that means? It's Itachi's birthday! I made absolutely certain that I updated an Itachi chapter in honor of the day, so here it is! Enjoy!

* * *

"Afternoon, Itachi, how are you today?" Doctor Mignogna greeted Itachi.

Startled by the sudden opening of the door, Itachi's eyes fluttered open in the face of Doctor Mignogna's outstretched hand. "Good afternoon." Itachi replied, returning the handshake whilst brushing his bangs out of his face. "I've been better, honestly."

"Of course!" The physician laughed. "If you were feeling fine, why would you need to be here?" He asked.

_Ever the joker._ Itachi remembered from his last visit to the doctor's office.

Doctor Mignogna smiled as he took a seat in the chair behind the makeshift desk. "Let me ask you this instead: what brings you in today?"

This was it. For a while now, Itachi knew that something wasn't quite right and passed it off as work related stress. Nothing out of the ordinary. And with Sasuke gone, he'd been working even harder in an attempt to distract himself from the overwhelming lack of activity in the apartment which made it perfectly reasonable that he'd be even more stressed out. "I've been depressed lately." Itachi sighed, surprised by the courage in his own words. Although he had been exercising the thought for a couple of days now, today was the first day he had openly admitted it to another person. And himself.

"Really?" Mignogna asked with a raised brow. "What's been going on?"

In preparation for what was sure to become a lengthy discussion, Itachi crossed his right leg over his left so he could lean against the desk a little more comfortably. "Sasuke just moved out recently."

"Your younger brother?" The doctor asked. Itachi nodded. "Is this his first place?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Mignogna nodded.

Itachi closed his eyes, tired from both a long day of work and the depression that was ailing him. "I've been worried about him. He didn't tell me that he was even looking for an apartment until a month and a half ago and I'm worried that he's not ready to be on his own."

The physician, who had long since sat back in his chair with a thoughtful hand propped under his chin slowly nodded and crossed his ankle at the knee. "What can you do?" He asked. "Were you expecting him to live with you forever? You must have realized that he was going to move out someday."

_Sasuke said the same thing_. Itachi thought forlornly.

"I know you want to protect your brother form all the evil in the world, Itachi,"Mignogna continued, "but he needs to learn how to pick himself up when he falls; you can't always be there to catch him."

"I know." Itachi said.

"But anyways, you say that you've been feeling depressed as of late. I can imagine some of the anxiety that you have regarding your little brother may be causing some feelings of sadness here and there, but have you noticed any changes in your sleeping pattern?"

Itachi regarded the doctor with tired eyes. _Isn't it obvious that I'm not sleeping well?_ "I've been extremely fatigued lately, so much so that I can't seem to wake up to my alarm in the morning like I used to without turning the volume to maximum capacity. Even then I'm still not entirely awake. I nearly fall asleep after dismissing my alarm and again while I'm taking a shower in the mornings." He explained. "I have yet to fall asleep at the wheel, but I fear that it's only a matter of time."

Across from him, Mignogna's right hand was hard at work, furiously scribbling down the details of Itachi's testimony on the legal notepad attached to his binder. "Do you drink coffee or take any supplements to help you stay awake?" He asked without looking up from the pad.

"I drink four to five cups of coffee a day and still find myself struggling to keep my eyes open at times. I've tried taking a nap when I return home from work, but that usually results in me sleeping until my alarm goes off again in the morning."

"I see." Mignogna said as he finished his notes. "When did you start to notice changes in your sleep schedule?"

"At the beginning of the month." Itachi answered easily. "I had a nightmare that a police officer turned up at my door at one in the morning to tell me that Sasuke died in a car accident. When I woke up, I realized that my alarm had been going off and that I only had fifteen minutes to get to work on time."

About halfway through his story, Mignogna had set to work detailing the most medically relevant facts in sloppy bullet points that floated high above the ledger lines of his notepad, nodding all the while. "Okay. Have you noticed any changes to your diet or appetite?" He asked. "Eating less? Eating more?"

"I've been eating less than I usually do lately." Itachi supplied.

Mignogna nodded and sat back against the wall again. "And when did you start to notice that?"

That was a good question, and one that Itachi hadn't given very much thought to before. He was never very big on breakfast, and depending on how much work he needed to accomplish by end of the workday, he didn't eat a very big lunch either. Which left dinner… "I don't know." He finally answered when he remembered the sandwich he'd left in the fridge the other day. "I just found a roommate who's made it his personal mission to share his food with me every chance he gets and each time I refuse because he doesn't need to worry about me. I can do that myself." He answered and mentally kicked himself as soon as the words left his mouth. _If you can take such good care of yourself, why are you here?_ "But the other day, he mentioned that he never sees me eat anything because I'm always so busy working and it made me wonder if there was some truth in his statement so I did some research online regarding my fatigue and loss of appetite."

"And when was this?"

"Sunday afternoon."

"And do you agree with him?" The physician asked.

Itachi shrugged. "I guess so. At first I didn't think much of it because the man barely even knows me. But when I only ate a bagel with cream cheese on Monday, I convinced myself that something was wrong with me."

"I see. Are you experiencing any feelings of worthlessness or hopelessness?" Mignogna asked, running through the list of symptoms commonly associated with depression. "Do you, or have you had any thoughts of suicide recently?"

Itachi shook his head vehemently. "Suicide, no. Hopelessness, no." He replied. "I do, on occasion, feel like a worthless older brother for not being involved enough in Sasuke's life, especially after our father died. And when I finally got involved, I ended up driving him away."

Mignogna nodded in understanding. After Mikoto died, Fugaku and Sasuke moved to the next town over and had their medical files transferred to the local hospital where Mignogna became their family physician. After Fugaku's passing, Itachi moved here to be closer to Sasuke and was also assigned to Mignogna who was starting to understand their unique family dynamics in the years since working with them "That's understandable." He said, placing his pen on the legal pad and before turning to face Itachi. "Can I ask you to hop onto the examination table while I conduct a brief physical examination, please?"

Itachi did as instructed, quickly closing the distance between the chair where he was sitting and the examination bed, which took up most of the room.

Once Itachi removed his neck tie and was comfortably seated on the crunchy tissue paper covering the bed, Mignogna began his examination, starting with his breathing, followed by his heart beat, eye and ear inspection, and reflexes.

"Tilt your chin up for me, please." Mignogna instructed next. "I'm just going to press a few areas on your neck to check for swelling in your lymph nodes which will tell me if you are suffering from an underlying infection that might be causing your symptoms." He said, pressing his forefingers under the base of Itachi's jawline before scooting away from the exam table. "Do you have to be anywhere tonight?" He asked him.

"No." Itachi answered and brought a hand up to his neck to feel where the doctor's fingers were just pressing. "I was planning to go home once I'm done here."

"Okay." Mignogna answered, scribbling something on a smaller tablet this time. "I'm going to order you a blood test down in the lab to check for signs of hypothyroidism, a disease that affects the thyroid gland which is responsible for regulating things such as your heartbeat and metabolism."

_Hypothyroidism?_ Itachi balked with wide eyes. That wasn't one of the illnesses that came up in his search last week.

"It's also been known to cause depression, but can't be detected through a physical exam; it has to be done through bloodwork." He said, ripping off a sheet of paper and handing it to Itachi.

Itachi merely glanced at it before asking "When will I know if this is my problem?"

"While we can perform the lab test today, we won't have the results for about a week or so. If you receive a phone call from us, you'll have to schedule another appointment so that we can discuss our findings. If you don't receive a phone call from us, you're in the clear."

"And then what?" He asked.

"Well," Mignogna started to explain before scribbling something else onto the very same notepad from before, "we'll give you medications for it. But until then, I'm going to prescribe you some anti-anxiety meds to help take the edge off your concerns about Sasuke." He smiled, and handed Itachi a prescription to be handed to his pharmacist.

"Okay." Itachi said after a moment of studying the new slip of paper in his hands. "Thank you."

"Oh, anytime!" Mignogna said, rising to shake Itachi's hand. "Just remember to stop by the lab which is located right by the hospital entrance and don't forget to hand this to your local pharmacist to receive your prescription, okay?"

Itachi nodded and returned the handshake. "Okay." He said and turned to take his leave. "Thanks again." He said over his shoulder.

"Anytime!" Mignogna replied as he followed him out, sticking his pen into the breast pocket of his dress shirt.

* * *

**Author's Note(s):**

1\. I've used a lot of Naruto characters (mostly obscure ones like Miru and Suikazan as well as some that have not been mentioned yet) so when it came to this chapter, I needed a name for Itachi's doctor (because, let's face it, I can't just keep saying "The doctor said" over and over and over again, can I?) But when it came down to Naruto characters associated with medical ninjutsu, the options were limited. Soooo...I decided to use the last name of one of the character's English voice actors! So without further ado, I present to you Dr. Vic Mignoga (aka. Nagato's English voice actor). That is not to say that this man is Nagato or that Vic Mignogna is an actual doctor. I just needed a name for the guy!

2\. Itachi's birthday does occur within the span of this story (I think chapter 14 fell on his birthday if I remember correctly...) However, I didn't do anything with it because Sasuke wasn't talking to him at this point and Itachi didn't strike me as one to celebrate the day (even if it occurred on a Saturday). I will give you this though: he was hoping that Sasuke would at least call him to wish him a happy birthday that day and didn't.

3\. I've done my research on depression and hypothyroidism, but if you suspect you have any of these things, please see a doctor. I am, by no means, a doctor and am not qualified to give you medical advice. I just write stories.

Until next time~

Sasori33-001

PS The next chapter is set to be a Kisame chapter (that might be subject to change, though!)


	22. Chapter 22

**So I neither worked on this Sunday and it's before Tuesday (dates I mentioned I would work on this chapter on my profile page). I'm surprised that I knocked out an entire chapter this early in the morning! Wow! Enjoy~**

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Hypothyroidism – a condition in which the thyroid gland does not produce enough thyroid hormone; also known as underactive thyroid.

Symptoms include weakness, fatigue, depression, dry skin, brittle nails, having low tolerance for cold, memory problems and having trouble thinking clearly.

But where did one draw the line between being fatigued from working too hard and being ill? How could one know that their inability to think clearly was caused by an internal condition in need of medical attention when, for the past two months, they've been preoccupied with thoughts of their younger brother's wellbeing?

These were things Itachi thought about as he made his way to the doctor's office after work on Friday afternoon, a week after his initial appointment with Dr. Mignogna.

_"__If you receive a phone call from us,"_ Mignogna explained to him, _"you'll have to schedule another appointment so that we can discuss our findings. If you don't receive a phone call from us, you're in the clear."_

In the time since then, Itachi consulted the internet, researching everything and anything he could regarding hypothyroidism in an attempt to understand his overwhelming symptoms of late. The weakness, fatigue, depression, and trouble thinking clearly were uncontested; anyone could see that these four symptoms were slowly eroding Itachi's day-to-day life and if left unattended, would no doubt start to affect Itachi's performance at work, regardless of how much he accomplished after hours. _If_ he could even summon up the will to work at home instead of sleeping the entire evening away like he wanted to so many times within the past few weeks.

But despite all of his research, some symptoms such as dry skin, brittle nails, low tolerance for cold temperatures and memory problems still eluded him. His skin wasn't dry, his fingernails remained solid, even after accidentally slamming a filing cabinet drawer on them the other day, and he had no problem with the cold. In fact, cold air was a welcomed respite in the summer heat of July. He'd be insane not to use his central air conditioning system when temperatures reached a low of sixty-seven degrees in the evening with a highs in the nineties during the daytime.

But as far as memory was concerned, Itachi was torn. Due to his pressing fatigue (a symptom he originally, and still attributed to working too hard), he found himself struggling to remember what it was he was doing before he felt the overwhelming urge to yawn, or what command he needed to enter into his spreadsheets when he found himself craving a cup of coffee or even what day of the week it was when his alarm sounded in the mornings.

But that was normal, right? Surely there was nothing outstanding there.

However, the call he received concerning the results of his blood lab said otherwise. It was clear to him that he had hypothyroidism, even though he hadn't exhibited all of the usual symptoms. _Yet_.

Upon reaching the hospital parking lot, he stepped out of the comfort of his air-conditioned car and into the blistering heat of the summer, prepared to hear what he already knew and do whatever it took to take back control over his life again. It wasn't quite the way he imagined spending his Friday afternoon, but it was necessary.

"Itachi!" Dr. Mignogna greeted him with a warm smile.

"Good afternoon." Itachi greeted in return, forcing a smile through pursed lips. _Just give it to me straight and prescribe me with the needed medications so that I can be on my way._

"Well," Mignogna sighed as he sat in his chair, "the lab was able to process the blood samples you provided us with last Thursday."

_Go on…_Itachi wanted to say but bit his tongue.

"And it turns out that you _do not_ have hypothyroidism."

Itachi blinked in surprise, attempting to process what he'd just been told. "But you said you would only call me if I had—"

"That is correct. I did say that if you didn't receive a call from us that you were in the clear." Mignogna said, pursing his own lips. "However, you're not out of the woods yet."

"So what's wrong with me then?" Itachi asked.

Mignogna peeled back the paper top paper of his clipboard. "While your blood work did not yield results of hypothyroidism, it yielded results of something far worse."

Running into Kisame and making small talk was the last thing that Itachi wanted to deal with upon returning home to his apartment and thankfully, his roommate was nowhere to be seen. Whether he was asleep in Sasuke's old bedroom after a long day of work or at one of his two jobs, Itachi couldn't care less. The only thing he cared about was collapsing onto his bed in hopes that when he awoke in the morning, things would be back to normal again.

But he knew better than anyone that this would not be so. Whenever he woke up the next morning, he would still feel the same as he felt today and every day for a while now. And he knew that he would feel the same the day after today and the day after that, and the day after that until he returned back to the hospital for treatment.

And even then, it would be a while before he started to feel like himself again. In fact, he might never feel the same way again, a fact which loomed in the back of his mind.

Once he got to his bedroom, he unceremoniously dropped his laptop bag onto the floor, too tired and too preoccupied with his own thoughts to care if he damaged it or not and made his way over to the bed.

He fell forward with such force, that the mattress springs creaked and the bedframe moaned in distress under his weight.

Rolling onto his back, he pulled his key ring, wallet, and cell phone from his pocket, discarding his keys and wallet onto the nightstand while he brought up a familiar contact on his phone.

"You have reached the voice mailbox of _Sasuke Uchiha_; if you'd like to leave a message after the beep. If you'd like to leave a call-back number, press one." The answering machine spoke through the phone.

Itachi sighed, wishing so badly that he could hear Sasuke's voice to tell him the results of his doctor's visit, but due to the fact that Sasuke was still giving him the silent treatment after their dispute at the cemetery, he'd have to settle for leaving a message instead.

"Sasuke?" Itachi spoke when the receiver beeped. "I know that you're upset with me, and I don't blame you." He said, and took a deep breath to calm his racing heart. "I've been unnecessarily hard on you these past few months and I want to apologize for my behavior." With each word, his heart pounded faster and faster and his breathing began to hitch. "This isn't a trick, and I'm not playing any mind-games. I'm not calling you to try to change your mind. I just wanted to say that I love you and that no matter what, I always will…even if you're mad at me." By now, his hand was shaking. "I'm not asking you to forgive me right away, but something's happened and I thought you might like to know." He swallowed hard, attempting to dispel the thick lump that had developed in his throat. "I've been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia." He said. "Sasuke? I have cancer."

* * *

**Okay, so I'd like to dedicate this story to The Secret Sal (love ya, hon!) and Nanaki Lioness (God bless the limited time you have to review my work; I love you too!), the ONLY people to review the thing that I've poured my heart and soul into (as you can tell by all the medical research I've been putting in lately). But that's only the tip of the iceberg. In total, I have 5 separate documents and at least 3 internet tabs up simultaneously when I write every chapter of this story. There's the main document, a PowerPoint outline, the old Word document outline, an Excel spreadsheet detailing Kisame's work schedule from week to week (even though I don't really need to know what he works every single day), and a Publisher calendar detailing when each chapter occurs. As far as the internet tabs are concerned, 2 are dedicated to medical reference sites and the last one is an online thesaurus (since Bing dictionary is a bitch). To say the least, I put a lot of effort into this and would like you all to review and validate my work as I go - don't wait until the last chapter please, that will be a while, so if you wanna see this thing through until the end, please review.**

**As always, you can follow my progress on my profile page under "Story Statuses."**

**Thank you and have a nice day.**

**Until next time,**

**~Sasori33-001**

**PS The next chapter is set to be a Kisame chapter and ought to be a doozy.**


	23. Chapter 23

***swims to the surface and gasps for air* CHAPTER 23 HAS BEEN WRITTEN! WHOOT! I don't know why I'm so excited! Maybe it's because I love this story so much (it's the longest story I've written to date! ;) ) and I had the planning done a week ago, I think, but was too tired to actually sit down and write the stupid thing (plus, I hadn't uploaded my other story - Things Better Left Unsaid for a while, so I needed to plan and write that out...) but I finally sat down and wrote it for y'all's (Y'all meaning (primarily) The Secret Sal (love you, honey~), Moo-cow300, KamuiMaster, and Nanaki Lioness) viewing pleasure.**

**So enough rant from me - here's chapter 23~ (and it rhymed! *tears of joy*)**

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When Kisame didn't see Itachi when he awoke at 5:30am on Monday morning, he thought nothing of it. Itachi didn't have to be at work until eight, and never woke up until half past seven so it was natural to assume that he wouldn't be awake so early in the morning.

When Kisame didn't see Itachi when he returned to the apartment at 2pm, he thought nothing of it because Itachi didn't return back from work until after 5pm.

What Kisame didn't expect, however, was for Itachi to emerge from his bedroom at 3:23pm and restarted his phone. "Aren't you supposed to be at work right now?" He asked, and checked the time on the television, which read 3:24pm. "It's barely 3:30; you don't get off until five, right?"

Without offering an explanation, Itachi slowly approached him and handed him a sealed white envelope with Kisame's name neatly printed on the front. Using his index finger to pry open the seal, he dumped the thin contents onto his hand. "A check?" He asked him.

"I'm refunding your rent from the time you've been here."

Kisame examined the check in his hands. 'One thousand one hundred and eighty-two dollars and fifty cents paid to the order of Kisame Hoshigaki' it read. "Why?" He asked and looked to Itachi for an explanation.

Itachi sighed and looked away. "Something came up and I need you to leave."

Had Itachi asked him to leave for an afternoon while he had company over, Kisame would understand. Heck, he'd be content locking himself in his bedroom for the duration of whatever Itachi was planning to do. But something about the check lying in his palm told him that this wasn't temporary. This was permanent. "Leave? Are you kicking me out?"

Itachi nodded. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience."

Kisame handed it back to him. "I won't accept this."

Itachi blinked in confusion a few times. "I'm refunding your rent; either take it or leave it."

"What do you mean 'something came up'?" He asked, rising to his feet. "What? Are you having an argument with your girl or something? If that's the case, then I can leave you two alone if you need some privacy, but I'm not leaving altogether!"

"Kisame, that's not what I'm—" Itachi started to say.

"Does she want to move in with you? Is that it?" He demanded to know. And as soon as the words left his lips, all he could see in front of him was Miru sitting on the couch beside him, her honey colored hair cascading over her shoulders as her eyes looked anywhere except at Kisame. _"I'm asking you to move back in with Fuguki, above the auto-shop."_

Itachi might as well have recited her exact words. And had Suikazan still been alive, Kisame had no doubt in his mind that Itachi would've.

"There isn't a girl involved, Kisame." Itachi sighed, clearly frustrated with Kisame's lack of cooperation.

"Then why are you kicking me out all of a sudden? Did the rent increase? Am I not pulling my weight around here? If so, you sure as hell didn't come to me about anything, so I deserve an explan—" He started to say when Itachi handed him the check again.

"Something came up and I need you to leave."

Kisame clenched his fists. "Where exactly do you expect me to go, Itachi? Where?" He said through gritted teeth. "Back to my boss' place? Back to the autoshop? Do you expect me to stay with my friend and her boyfriend who feels threatened by me or something? Is that what you were thinking?"

"Look, I'm sorry that it has to be this way, but I'm willing to reimburse you for the rent that you've already paid during your time here. Maybe you can use it to find another place to live." Itachi said.

Kisame threw his hands up in disbelief. "I looked for a second job in order to live _here_, Itachi! So that I could help pay my half of the rent! You think if I wanted to live somewhere else, I would've worked as hard as I did to be living where I am now?!"

Itachi cast his gaze to the floor. "Sometimes, things don't always go according to plan." He said and handed him the check once more. "You have two options: take the check, or don't take the check. Either way, you have to leave." He said.

"I can't accept that." Kisame muttered as he stalked past Itachi and headed for the front door. "I'm leaving, but I'll be back later to get ready for my _second_ _job_." He said. "And I hope that by the time I return, you realize how unreasonable you're being." And pulled the door shut behind him.

For all his tough talk, Kisame found himself between a rock and a hard place as he stared at the place where the edge of the water met the sky, divided only by the hazy heat waves drifting on the horizon.

Without a prior plan in mind, he pulled out his phone and dialed a familiar number.

_"__Hello?"_ Miru asked.

"Hey, Miru, how's it going?" Kisame greeted her with a fond smile.

_"__Kisame! I'm doing great! How are you doing?"_

"I'm doing fine, I guess." He answered and switched the phone over from his right hand to his left.

_"__Babe? Who's that on the phone?"_ Miru's boyfriend asked from the background.

As soon as he heard her boyfriend's voice, he immediately hung up the phone. It wasn't a mystery to anyone that Miru's boyfriend didn't like him. Kisame didn't have a problem with the man except for his extreme jealousy and overprotectiveness of Miru.

Just then, his phone started ringing again. It was Miru. And again, Kisame disconnected the call. For all he knew, Mr. Overprotective was calling him back to give him a piece of his mind and to warn him to stay away from his girlfriend.

Kisame sighed and glanced at his forgotten phone lying on the guard railing. It seemed that he had received a text message from Miru.

_"__Is everything alright?" _It read.

"Yeah." He typed back and pressed the 'send' button. Had it been three months ago, Kisame would've gladly told her all of the details of his morning. Miru was a girl, after all, and girls, he knew, like to listen to other people's problems. But Miru was different from most girls Kisame came into contact with. When you told her something, she didn't listen just to be polite or to get the latest juicy gossip; Miru genuinely cared about the lives of others and wanted to do whatever she could to help. That's why she made such a good school teacher to young children. She wanted nothing more than to see them succeed and grow under her tutelage.

In that respect, she hadn't changed. It was her _life_ that was slowly evolving. She had a job and a boyfriend whom she loved (Kisame didn't know why, but that wasn't any of his business). She was building a life for herself and had enough to worry about without Kisame adding his own problems into the mix.

And with Suikazan gone, the only option he could see was climbing over this stupid railing and jumping over the edge, putting an end to his problems and ending his pain. With his death, he wouldn't have to worry about finding a place to live. Somebody else would take care of his body for him. And he wouldn't have to worry about working two jobs anymore. All of his problems would melt away.

_"__Or you could try changing Itachi's mind."_ He could hear Miru saying inside his head. He didn't think Miru even knew Itachi. Did he even talk to her about him before? He didn't think so.

While that was certainly an option, it was mission impossible. In the time Kisame had been arguing with him earlier, Itachi's face was unreadable as he handed Kisame the check. How did someone like himself change the mind of someone like Itachi?

_"__Something came up and I need you to leave." _He remembered Itachi saying over and over.

_What does that mean?_ Kisame wondered. He didn't know Itachi well enough to know what was going on in the man's life to even begin to fathom what he meant when he said that "something came up." Although Itachi admitted that a girl wasn't involved, that didn't mean that he didn't have a girlfriend. But if he did, Kisame never saw her before. It also stood to reason that she didn't visit while he was at work because Kisame never shared his work schedule with Itachi. Hell, the man spend almost 70% of his time in his bedroom for God's sake! What was there to hide?

More importantly, what was there to hide that would force Itachi to kick him out?

At 7:33pm, Kisame was more than halfway home which left him an hour and half to spare before he needed to be one his way to the convenience store. _An hour and a half I have to spend with Itachi_. He thought bitterly. At this hour, Itachi was no doubt in the apartment, probably locked away in his bedroom, lying in wait for Kisame to return.

Kisame chuckled to himself as he walked down the street. _He probably moved all of my stuff into the hallway with a sign labeled "free."_ He thought darkly.

If it hadn't been for a police officer asking him if he was planning to commit suicide or not, he would've spent the time he had before he needed to get ready to go to work standing at the bridge instead of returning home to whatever hell awaited him there.

And of course, with his luck, Itachi was standing in the kitchen washing dishes when Kisame returned. _Of course._ He thought. _Maybe if I act like I'm not here, he won't notice me._

"Do you have a minute to talk?" Itachi asked and dried his hands on a nearby washcloth.

_Shit._ "About what? We already talked. You want me gone, and I'm not leaving. What more is there to talk about?" He asked. "Let me guess: you want me out by the end of this week? Is that it? Am I supposed to be searching for places to live during my spare time?"

Itachi sighed and leaned back against the counter. "About that. I'm really sorry about earlier. There's a lot going on in my life right now and I don't know if I can handle living with another person at the moment." He said.

Kisame raised a questioning brow. "Meaning…what exactly? You're the one who took on a roommate in the first place, may I remind you. What? Does it have to do with your job? Are you getting fired and need to downsize? Because if that's the case, I'd rather you just be frank with me instead of—"

"I have cancer."

And just like that, the bomb was dropped. "What does that have to do with anything?" Kisame asked him. "Are you—are you serious right now?"

Itachi slowly nodded. He wasn't looking at Kisame, or at the floor, or anything really. Just staring somewhere in the far distance.

"So let me get this straight; if you have cancer, then why do you need to—" Kisame attempted to reason when Itachi cut him off.

"I'm going in for treatment this Friday."

"_This_ Friday?" Kisame asked.

Itachi nodded.

It was Monday, which meant that by the end of the week, Itachi would be in the hospital receiving treatment for a potentially fatal illness. "Okay…so…"

"And I won't be back for a month."

If Kisame wasn't already at a loss for words, this one left him completely speechless. "What do you mean you won't be back for a month?!" He'd never in his life heard of staying in the hospital for treatments lasting an entire month. Pregnant women didn't even stay in the hospital for that long! So why was Itachi…?

"Last Friday," Itachi began to explain, "I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, which is a cancer of the bone marrow. I need to go in for treatment as soon as possible, but this specific treatment lasts for four weeks." He said and pursed his lips. "I'm not entirely comfortable leaving you here in my apartment by yourself for that amount of time."

"So what you're basically saying is that you don't trust me." Kisame articulated, taking a few steps into the kitchen where Itachi was standing. "Is that what this is all about?"

Itachi averted his gaze. "I've only known you for about a month now. And while things seem to be running smoothly so far, you're still a stranger whom I barely even know."

_If you weren't cooped up in your bedroom every day, maybe you would know me better than that._ Kisame wanted to say. "That's probably because I'm so busy working myself. And during the short amount of time that I am free, I'm either sleeping, eating, or watching TV." He carefully explained. One wrong move and he'd miss his opportunity to earn Itachi's trust. "With a chaotic work schedule like mine, how much trouble could I get into?"

"I don't know, Kisame." Itachi said. "I just…there's been a lot on my mind lately, and I don't know if I'm up for taking any chances—"

"Please let me stay." Kisame said. "I've been through a lot these past few months. I've moved from place to place and now I feel like I've found a place to stay…for a while at least. I've worked hard to earn your respect and gain your trust and if you let me stay, I'll prove to you once again, that I'm worth taking chances on."

For what felt like forever, Itachi stared at him, looking him up and down as if judging his worth based on his current appearance alone. But through it all, not once did Kisame break eye contact with him, not even to examine if his jeans contained any unflattering oil spills from his time at Suikazan's.

"Fine." Itachi sighed. "I'll let you stay." He said and walked over to the living room table.

Kisame didn't move from his spot and watched as Itachi leaned over the coffee table where the discarded check lay and tore it in half.

"Thank you." Kisame told him.

"I'm going to bed for the night." Itachi said with a nod and a yawn.

Kisame looked at the time on the stove. "_Shit._ I gotta get ready for work soon too!" He said and quickly jogged over to his bedroom.

"Oh? And Kisame?" Itachi said from over his shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"I'm putting my trust in you, Kisame. _Don't_ break it."

* * *

**And thus, Itachi has not only dropped the bomb, and fired shots, but he's also laid down the rules - way to go Itachi-san!**

**I can't say for sure who's perspective the next chapter will follow yet...we'll see.**

**As always, check my profile page for any updates on next chapter's progress!**

**And with that said, I bid you good-bye,**

**Until next time~**

**Sasori33-001**

**P.S. $2,365 is Itachi's actual rent (meaning, I researched where he actually lives and that is the rent of the place). If you split that in half, Kisame pays $1,182.50 a month.**


	24. Chapter 24

**[A/N]: Damn, this chapter was short! It wasn't even 1,000 words! *my God!* Oh well. Regardless of the length, I hope you still enjoy it. (and sorry for the long wait! I need to take some time to do some planning!) ~Sasori33-001**

**And The Secret Sal, if you like how Itachi loses it and worries in Things Better Left Unsaid, I think you'll like this chapter!**

* * *

Friday.

This Friday, Itachi was told, he would be admitted to the hospital in order to start treatment for his AML.

The treatment would take a month. A month Itachi would spend lying in a hospital bed instead of doing his work. While Itachi didn't particularly _enjoy_ working, it allowed him to keep his mind from conjuring up ways Sasuke could be struggling to make each pay check and starving himself to make ends meet. Or worse, the fact that Sasuke may have surrendered to drinking his troubles away, thus flushing his money down the drain by doing so, which would get him evicted from his apartment and because of his pride, he wouldn't bother to ask Itachi for help. And even if his pride wasn't an issue, he was still mad at Itachi for pushing him so hard in the first place when he should have just trusted him from the beginning and talked to him more instead of focusing on work and assuming that things were going to be alright.

Itachi shook his head to dispel the dark thoughts rolling into his subconscious. He hadn't even been admitted for treatment yet and already he felt sick to his stomach. How the hell was he going to distract himself from Sasuke for a month if he couldn't even distract himself for five minutes?

He sighed. It was Wednesday; a day he _could_ have spent tying up loose ends at work instead of sitting at the hospital waiting to consult with his doctor about what he needed to do to prepare for his upcoming treatment in two days.

That was it? There were only two days between now and his treatment?

"Itachi Uchiha?" A woman called, pulling him away from the ledge of an oncoming panic attack.

"That's me." Itachi said, rising to a stand.

"The doctor will see you now."

-8-8-8-

"Please, call me Tsunade." The doctor said, beckoning him to take a seat in the chair across from him.

Never in his entire life had Itachi seen a woman with breasts as big as this woman's. Now, normally, Itachi didn't pay attention to such things because if he were a woman, he'd prefer for people to look into his eyes rather than his…endowments….But in this instance, it was unavoidable. How did she find clothes that fit her correctly? Her bust was as wide as her hips were, maybe wider. Did she get them tailored? If so, it sounded like it would be a hassle Itachi was glad to be free of.

"So, Itachi," Tsunade flipped through the papers on her clipboard. "I see that you're scheduled for treatment Friday morning."

Itachi nodded.

"Are you prepared?" She asked, her amber eyes locking with his anthracite ones.

Itachi swallowed to dispel the cluster of words lodged in his esophagus. When none came, he simply nodded and uttered "I think so."

"Have you talked to your employer yet? You'll be out of work for at least four or five weeks, depending on how everything goes." She explained.

He nodded. "Yes, I talked to them.

Tsunade didn't take her eyes away from him and tapped a ballpoint pen against her clipboard. "And you are aware that under the Family and Medical Leave Act, you cannot be fired from your job while receiving treatment?"

"Yes."

Nodding, Tsunade set the clipboard aside. "Do you have someone to watch your house while you're in the hospital?"

_Please let me stay. I've worked hard to earn your respect and gain your trust and if you let me stay, I'll prove to you once again, that I'm worth taking chances on. _Itachi remembered Kisame saying the other day and replied "Yes."

Tsunade regarded him doubtfully. "And do you have someone to drive you to and from the hospital for admittance and upon discharge?"

Why did he need somebody to drive him there? He drove himself here today, so why did he need somebody to drive him here again on Friday? "Actually, I have a car; I can drive myself."

The oncologist sighed and propped her cheek against her knuckles. "That may be, but you need to take into account the amount of energy you'll have upon discharge." She explained. "Chemotherapy isn't always a walk in the park, Itachi. It'll be a while before you start to feel like yourself again, even after the conclusion of your treatment. More often than not, most people are in no condition to drive themselves home afterwards."

Itachi couldn't deny that there were times in which he nearly fell asleep at a red light or two on his way to work. And that was when he believed he was fatigued from overexertion at work. He could only imagine what it would be like after receiving chemotherapy.

"In addition to that, the parking lot outside is not secure, meaning the hospital is not at fault if your vehicle is stolen or vandalized while you are undergoing treatment." Tsunade said. "In most cases, patients' family members, friends or neighbors drive them here and back."

Itachi's mother and father were both deceased and Itachi's brother currently wasn't speaking to him or answering any of his phone calls or texts, thus ruling out family members. Itachi never really cared for making and keeping friends so that wasn't an option either. And Itachi didn't know his next door neighbors well enough to bother them with such a burden, especially on a Friday morning.

"Co-workers you have a close relationship with?"

Itachi shook his head. He didn't like chatting with his co-workers when there was work to be done.

"Do you live alone?" She asked.

"I have a roommate." Itachi supplied.

"Do you think they would be willing to drive you?"

Itachi could ask himself the same question.

* * *

**I don't know who suggested that Tsunade be Itachi's doctor, but I originally said no because I didn't want _every_ character that appears in the story to be a Naruto character, thus, Dr. Mignogna was created (though I must admit, I really don't like OC's...heh...heh) but I think it's fitting that Tsunade be Itachi's oncologist so kudos to whoever came up with that idea!**

**I'm hoping that I get around to the next chapter within the next week or two...I dunno. Feel free, as always, to check out my profile page for chapter progress! I update it quite frequently!**

**Until next time~**

**Sasori33-001**


	25. Chapter 25

**[A/N]: If I remember correctly, I just updated this story less than a week ago. Wow. I didn't expect to update it again so soon. Any who, I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

_"__I have cancer."_

And with those three words, Kisame's life was once again turned upside down. Cancer was no joke. Each year, millions of people died from all kinds of cancer; lung cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer, brain cancer, kidney cancer, colon cancer. You could basically name any part of the body and tag "cancer" to the end of it and the chances were that it was a real illness.

An illness that his roommate was currently suffering from and would be treated for this Friday, leaving the apartment to Kisame.

_"__And I won't be back for a month."_

One month. He had one month of having the entire place to himself. He felt like a teenager whose parents just announced that they were going away for the weekend and would be leaving him alone at the house for three days to do whatever he wanted.

But this wasn't going to be like that. Not at all.

_"__I'm putting my trust in you, Kisame. Don't break it."_

If he were your average thief, this could've been part of his grand master plan. Gain the trust of a rich guy in need of a roommate, wait until he gets diagnosed with cancer, and when he leaves for treatment, rob him blind and make a run for it. But that wasn't who Kisame was. He'd had too many ups and downs in his life so far and had worked hard to be where he currently was. Sure, he wasn't making eleven dollars an hour by any means, but he had a home. A nice home. A home he shared with a man who was fair and had placed his trust in him while he went away to get better. He'd be stupid to break that trust and get thrown out on the streets again.

A part of Kisame felt bad for Itachi. The two men were nowhere close to being friends, let alone acquaintances, but it saddened him to know that the one person who took a chance on a deadbeat with no prospects like himself was dying of cancer – _cancer of all things! –_ made Kisame think about some things.

_"__Just take it." Kisame said, cutting him off. "You're always so busy working in your bedroom that I never see you eat anything." He said. "So I thought I'd bring you something quick to eat while you work. You don't have to eat it tonight; bring it to work with you tomorrow or eat it for dinner tomorrow night." He didn't really know what Itachi usually ate for breakfast in his haste to get to work on time or even what he ate for lunch while he was at work._

_If he works just as hard as he does when he's here, I can imagine that he doesn't really eat lunch either. Kisame thought, thankful he wasn't a part of the corporate business world like Itachi. Kisame valued food far too much to pursue such a career._

Back then, Kisame merely wrote off Itachi's strange eating habits as working too hard. And maybe that was part of it, but back then, Kisame didn't know that Itachi was dying from cancer either. Deep down, he knew that no matter how important one's job was, or how busy one got, you could always make time for at least one meal a day. And even though Kisame wasn't always present when Itachi was home, he could count on one hand the number of times he caught Itachi eating something.

_That should've been a red flag…_Kisame thought bitterly. _Nobody can survive on coffee alone…nobody…_

But it wasn't his business to pry and he barely knew the man. What would Itachi have thought if Kisame accused him of being ill and that he should go see a doctor? That would definitely earn him brownie points with his roommate, that's for sure.

And now that he knew that something was wrong with him, Kisame made sure to pay extra attention to his roommate's well-being whenever he was home and be more vocal towards him instead of minding his own business.

"How was work?" Kisame asked him when he arrived home on Wednesday afternoon.

To his surprise, Itachi didn't reply with a one word answer and walk away. Instead, he approached Kisame directly and answered "I'm busy tying up loose ends before I go in for treatment on Friday."

The older man nodded. With a job like Itachi's, he couldn't imagine tying up half of the loose ends Itachi was probably juggling. "Sounds like fun."

Itachi shrugged and placed his laptop bag on the floor by the sofa and took a seat across from Kisame. "Very."

_I thought he started his treatment on Friday. Did they put him on some happy pills before his treatment?_ "So how are you handling everything?" Kisame asked, attempting to start a conversation. What did you do when your antisocial roommate started talking to you and sat down on the couch beside you? Then it hit him. _He changed his mind about letting me stay._

He sighed and rested his cheek on his knuckles. "As well as can be expected." He answered. "I had a doctor's appointment this morning describing the preparations I need to make before Friday comes and I wanted to ask you—"

_Here it comes: "Would you be alright finding a hotel for a month while I go in for treatment? I can't bring myself to trust you just yet." Yup. That was how it was going to be. Those exact words._

"—do you own a car?"

Kisame blinked a few times before his brain could process what was being asked of him. _It's a trick question, _he thought, remembering a similar conversation he shared with Itachi about the subject of a car when he moved in.

_"__Where are your things?" Itachi asked, glancing around the lobby. "Did you bring them with you or were you planning to bring everything later?"_

_"__They're down the street." Kisame answered. At Itachi's blank look, Kisame elaborated. "I drove here, but I couldn't find a place to park, so I parked down the street."_

_"__You drove here?" Itachi asked. "You never mentioned that you had a car."_

_What is the best way to word this? "It's not technically my car; I borrowed it so I could move my stuff back and forth. I'll be returning it after work tonight."_

_Itachi nodded, satisfied with Kisame's answer. "That's good, because if you did own a car, I'd have to get you a parking permit, but since you don't, I don't need to worry about it."_

"No, I don't." He finally answered. "I borrowed a car to move-in my things, but I don't own one."

Itachi bowed his head with a somber nod. "I see. I remember you saying that now."

_This was obviously some sort of cancer-medicine induced trick._ "Why do you ask?"

Itachi's dark eyes looked up at him as he sighed. "My doctor explained that it would be best for someone to drive me there instead of driving myself as the hospital parking lot isn't secure and I won't be in any condition to drive myself back when my treatment is over." He explained.

_Okay, so maybe it wasn't a trick question this time._ "Don't you have a brother?" He asked him.

"Yeah."

Problem solved! "Why don't you have him drive you? Does he have a car?"

"He does. But he and I aren't on good terms right now. " Itachi replied and rose to a stand. "Don't worry about it. I'll take my chances and drive there myself."

Kisame watched as he picked up his laptop bag and headed in the direction of his bedroom.

_"__Please let me stay. I've worked hard to earn your respect and gain your trust and if you let me stay, I'll prove to you once again, that I'm worth taking chances on." _He remembered saying to Itachi the other day. "I'll drive you."

Itachi stopped at his bedroom door and turned his head in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"I said I'll drive you." Kisame brought himself to a stand and made sure to look Itachi in the eye.

"But you said you didn't own a car. You don't need to go out of your way to—"

"When I first met you, you were planning to turn me down and I begged you to give me a second change and you did. You gave me a chance to prove that I could be the person you were looking for and I rose to the occasion. And Monday you were about to kick me out when you found out that you had cancer, and I convinced you to trust me and let me stay." He said.

Itachi continued to stare at him, waiting for him to continue.

"You've done more for me than a lot of people have and I want to pay back the favor by driving you to the hospital on Friday."

"That's very thoughtful of you, but don't you have work? The hospital's almost twenty minutes away and I need to be there by 11am."

"Not a problem." Kisame said. "I took the graveyard shift for someone at the convenience store tomorrow night so I don't have to be at work until noon on Friday." He walked towards Itachi. "You're appointment's at eleven, right?"

"Yes." Itachi answered.

"I'll have you there at eleven and be at Hozuki's at noon."

"But you don't have a car."

"I'll find one." Kisame assured him.

Itachi opened his mouth as if to speak further, and closed it. And in that moment, the look of skepticism in his eyes changed to one of relief as he replied with a genuine "Thank you."

"No, thank _you._"

And that was how Kisame found himself driving one of Suikazan's old stick-shifts to the hospital where Itachi would be having his treatment done on Friday afternoon, dressed in his green polo and khaki pants, ready to leave for work when they were done.

"This was a rental, you said?" Itachi asked, holding onto the handle attached to the ceiling as Kisame drove.

"Yeah." Kisame lied. "What? Haven't you ever rode in a stick shift before?"

"I have, but all of the rentals I've driven were better kept than this thing." He looked around him at the stained interior and peeling upholstery.

This wasn't one of Suikazan's nicer cars, but at least no one would accuse him of stealing a rolling hunk of garbage like this one. "When I said I would get you there on time, I meant it." Kisame told him.

"If you say so." Itachi sighed.

Kisame glanced at Itachi out of the corner of his eye and remembered the first time they'd met. _"__Excuse my tardiness, I had a lot of work to finish today." _Back then, Itachi was a well-to-do business man who looked exactly like everyone else who came through the glass doors of the downtown apartment building. Dry-cleaned suit coat, tailored black dress pants with perfectly ironed pleats, a 100% cotton shirt and satin tie to match. Before that day, the only people Kisame had seen dressed like that were sports managers on the covers of athletic magazines, poised with a football or gold trophy in hand with a dazzling smile. But Itachi was none of that. He was just an ordinary guy with a job that paid, and paid _well_.

Back then, Itachi's professionalism was enough to make Kisame second guess his intentions, and stumble over his words as he searched for something that would make Itachi see him for more than he really was, and he had failed. To this day, he couldn't work out how he'd managed to make Itachi change his mind given how his first interview with the man had gone.

But now, Kisame viewed Itachi differently. No longer did he view him as the snide business man who had the money to sue him for all he was worth if he so much as put a scratch on his Maserati, but as an ordinary human being with ordinary problems.

In the month he'd known Itachi, he learned that he had worked hard for everything he had in life to support his younger brother, who, apparently, wasn't on good terms with him or something at the moment (Kisame still didn't know the full story behind that). He'd also learned that Itachi was, like everyone else, susceptible for illnesses like cancer but was in over his head in denial to admit it to himself or anyone else.

But more than anything, Itachi, underneath his tough exterior, was afraid. Even if he didn't say so, Kisame could see it reflected in the window of Suikazan's car, and reflected in his eyes. He was afraid of what lay ahead of him during these next few weeks while he received treatment; he was afraid of the outcome, whether he'd make it out okay or not.

Itachi, who stared blankly at the passing houses and trees, was afraid of the unknown.

Itachi, who exhaled through his mouth instead of through his nose in order to calm his nerves, was afraid of dying.

Just like any other human being.

* * *

**Please tell me what you think! (Don't expect me to update so quickly next time; I don't know what I'm doing right now!)**

**Until next time~**

**Sasori33-001**

**PS: I can't say whether the next chapter will be an Itachi or Kisame chapter just yet :(**


	26. Chapter 26

**[A/N]: I just updated this story like...2 days ago? (Damn, I'm on a roll!) Enjoy~**

* * *

Within twenty-four hours of being admitted to the hospital, Itachi was given an identification bracelet, assigned a room complete with a stiff bed. He was served three meals a day that he wouldn't have found appetizing when he was healthy and attached to an IA bag complete with a cocktail of chemotherapy drugs that would make him feel worse before it made him feel better.

Hospital life, he concluded, was a lot like prison life, and he had thirty days to go before the conclusion of his sentence.

The only difference between him and your common criminal was that even criminals had visitors, whereas Itachi did not.

That was another similarity between hospital and prison life. No cell phones allowed.

What if Sasuke tried calling him back? Or texted him to explain why he hadn't called sooner? Or to ask for directions to the hospital where he was receiving treatment?

Unlike your common prisoner, however, Itachi was allowed use of his tablet to entertain himself during his stay and had already attempted to reach out to Sasuke via social networking websites. The only problem was that Sasuke had long since shut down his Facebook account in favor for a Twitter account like the ones his friends utilized, and Itachi was ashamed to admit that he didn't know the first thing about Instagram or Twitter, or whatever it was he did to communicate these days besides texting.

He reclined in the bed with a sigh and fixed his gaze on the ceiling above him. Of all the times he and Sasuke fought, it had to be when Itachi needed his sibling the most.

And the worst part was that it was all Itachi's fault.

There were times in the past where Itachi had let Sasuke down before that he wasn't proud of. When Sasuke turned sixteen years old, seven months after their mother's death, he begged Itachi to move back home to teach him how to drive because his father refused to.

"Why?" Itachi asked. At twenty-two years of age, Itachi had recently graduated college and started work at an accounting firm he interned at his senior year. It would be un-wise not to take such an offer as the job paid decently, but the firm was located almost three hours away from his hometown by plane and four hours away by car.

Sasuke glanced over his shoulder at his father who was casually talking with a co-worker from the station and hissed "He's paranoid that I'll get myself in an accident and end up like mom!"

Itachi closed his eyes and sighed. "Learning to drive takes time, Sasuke—" _Time that I don't have._

"Then at least give me money for lessons!" Sasuke bargained.

_I barely have enough money to eat, let alone pay for my rent; how do you expect me to pay hundreds of dollars for you to take driving lessons? _He thought. "Did you ask dad if he would—"

"Yes, and he said that if he paid all that money for me to learn, he'd have to pay double when I got into a car accident because 'young people are too reckless to be driving at sixteen.'"

While Itachi partially agreed with his father's sentiment, he knew that Sasuke wouldn't see it that way. "When does he expect you to learn?"

"I dunno! He doesn't want to talk about it!" Sasuke fumed.

"I'll talk to him." He said and moved to interrupt his father's conversation when Sasuke pulled on his wrist.

"Can't you just get a job down here and teach me? It's bad enough that I'm like, the last person in my class to learn – everyone else already has their licenses _and_ cars except for me!"

"It's not about popularity, Sasuke." Itachi said. "It's about your safety, which is why dad's so concerned."

"Even Naruto knows how to drive, and he's a total moron!" Sasuke yelled.

Itachi glanced over to where his father was laughing at something one of his co-workers had said, thankful that he hadn't heard Sasuke raise his voice. "It hasn't even been a year since mom's accident," Itachi said in a hushed tone so that Sasuke would get the message and calm down a bit for attracting any unnecessary attention. Breaking up a fight between Sasuke and his father was the _last_ thing Itachi wanted to spend his day doing. "so of course dad's worried that something like that will happen to you, especially in a city like this."

"This isn't even a city, Itachi! It's a town, for God's sake!" He shook his head. "I should've known that you would've taken his side on this."

"Sasuke, I'm not—" Itachi started before he realized that he was taking his father's side. "Listen, I can't move back home because I just got hired by the accounting firm I interned at—"

"Then lend me some money so somebody can teach me!"

"It's not that simple, Sasuke, I have bills to pay!"

"What's going on here?" Fugaku asked, dislodging himself from his circle of colleagues.

He should've known that the day would end with him playing mediator to his brother and father. What he didn't know was that it would take three hours to settle their dispute, causing him to return back to his apartment just before midnight when he wanted to be back by seven.

It wasn't until their father died, two years later, that Sasuke would broach the topic of driving lessons again.

"I wanted to let you know that I'll be moving back home." Itachi informed him over the phone a few days later.

"Thanks, but I already know how to drive and I can take care of myself." Sasuke responded.

But Itachi was used to this kind of rebellious behavior from Sasuke. When their mother died, Itachi's role was to keep him and their father from killing each other, and when their father died, it was his responsibility to make sure that Sasuke had a place to live, food to eat, and an education. It was Itachi's job to make decisions for him that would have otherwise been up to their parents to make which resulted in a lot of arguments and fights over the years.

But no matter how loudly Sasuke yelled, how hard he glared at him, or how long he ignored him, his anger would fade over time like it always did.

Unlike every other time, however, Itachi could handle it because in each of those instances, there was never a doubt in his mind that he'd still be alive when the storm passed.

The rims of his eyelids began to burn with the onset of tears when the door to his room swung open.

"How's it goin'?" Kisame beamed.

* * *

**Yassss, Kisame! Let me hear it from all the Kisame fanzzzz!)**

**So, first thing's first, the next chapter is halfway written and will be an Itachi chapter. I can't guarantee it will get done anytime soon (I expect to update it by the end of next week at the latest) so yeah!**

******To The Secret Sal: Hopefully you enjoyed the chapter as alwayssss ;) luv ya, darling!**

******To Lookitallthecake: Thank you for giving yourself a name instead of "guest"! (that makes me so happy!) What doesn't make me happy, however, is the fact that I was unable to give you the chapter you wanted :'( ...There's a reason for everything I do (even if I don't know it at the end of each chapter) and there's a reason why Sasuke hasn't shown up yet and a reason why I haven't had him show up yet (they're two different things, but it's super difficult to explain) I guarantee he will show up soon! (it's Saturday, July 14th in the story right now - Sasuke will show up within the next week *don't quote me on that* I can't make any promises yet) but I can't say he'll be...civil...when he reunites with Itachi again (and on that note, I will say no more!)**

******To AbsoluteAnarchy: You just read through 25 chapters and alas a 26th has been posted and 27 is on it's way *sorry!* I tend to update quick and thus, expect you to be quick as well! (at least you only have 1,000 words to read this time instead of 40,000!)**

******To KamuiMaster and Moo-Cow300: I haven't seen you guys in a while! :(**

**Any who, tell me what you think, as always!**

**Until next time~**

**Sasori33-001**

**PS (to those of you from the US): I intentionally fudged Sasuke's age in the flashback where he turned sixteen and was arguing with Itachi about driving lessons. You may be asking "What did that have to do with age? You learn to drive when you're 16..." yeah, I know that. What I'm saying is, when Sasuke said "Naruto already knows how to drive" that was pointing to the fact that Naruto's birthday is in October and for Sasuke to be in the same grade as him (and being born in July) would make him younger than Naruto by default. (Also, I'm from a region of the US where the school cut off is at the beginning of September (I know for some states, it's October))**

**PSS (to those of you who are not from the US - foreigners - who tried to understand what I said above, here is your chance!) Although the story does not take place in any where specific, I write from what I know, and what I know is this: the school year is from the very end of August to the very beginning of June. When enrolling your kid in school, the age cut off (in my region) is in the beginning of September. If you are not a certain age by that cut-off date (5 years old, I think it is), you have to wait to enroll until the next year. For Sasuke to be older than Naruto, he would've been in a grade above him because his birthday is in July and Naruto's is in October. I wanted them to be in the same grade, so I intentionally made it so that Naruto was several months older than Sasuke even though Sasuke is older than him in the canon. Why is this important, or where is this mentioned? It's mentioned when Sasuke complains to Itachi on his sixteenth birthday that "Naruto already knows how to drive." In the US, you can learn to drive when you turn 16 years old. Since Naruto already knows how and Sasuke does not, even though Sasuke just turned 16, it implies that Naruto is older than him (which I know is not true in the canon, but for my purposes, is true here)**

**Now that you are all thoroughly (or not) confused, have a nice day!**


	27. Chapter 27

**[A/N]: Okay, I realize that I am starting to update this much more frequently than I have been, but don't expect it to last long! Until then, enjoy~**

* * *

Nurses, Tsunade, and maybe Sasuke. Those were the only people Itachi expected to pay him a visit. Kisame's sudden appearance was a wildcard.

"What are you doing, here?" Itachi asked him. Judging by the green polo and khakis, he was either coming from Hozuki's or heading to Hozuki's. Itachi was willing to bet that it was the former.

"Well, to tell you the truth," Kisame stuttered, averting this gaze to the floor, "I felt bad that I had to leave so quickly yesterday, but you know how it is." He said and pulled up a chair. "I also thought about what you said about your brother and how you guys aren't on speaking terms. You think he'd at least show up and support his older brother in a time like this. I mean, I would, well, I am, I guess, I dunno."

"Please, stop." Itachi uttered and clutched the thin bed sheet covering his legs. He was already frustrated with himself as it was; he didn't need Kisame to say things that would make him feel even worse about the situation.

"Sorry." He apologized and glanced around the room. "So how's everything going? Feeling better yet?"

What part of "I'll be gone for a month" did this man not understand? He hadn't been there long enough to even _feel_ the effects of the chemo in his system and he expected him to feel better? "The treatment lasts for a month which consists of one week of chemotherapy and three weeks of observation so the doctors can observe if it's eliminating the cancer cells." Itachi calmly explained.

"I see…" Kisame nodded, "and if it doesn't?"

"Then I might need a bone marrow transplant."

Kisame nodded again. How much of this he truly understood, Itachi couldn't be sure, but didn't press the issue any further. "So, how does chemotherapy work?"

At this point, Itachi would have preferred for one of his co-workers dropping off a "Get Well Soon" card over this. "Chemotherapy is a drug that targets cancer." Itachi slowly explained. "It can be taken via injection, pill, skin cream, intravenously or in my case, intra-arterially." He peeled back the collar of his shirt to reveal a thick tube that lead to a transparent bag labeled "BIO-HAZARD" in blocky text.

"Do you have to take it intra-whatever it is?" Kisame asked. "I mean, why can't you just order a prescription for chemotherapy cream and get on with your life instead of being cooped up in here for four or weeks?"

"It depends on the type of cancer you have." Itachi sighed. He was tired and nauseous. Explaining the mechanics of chemotherapy in his current state was not what he wanted to spend his Saturday morning doing.

Surprisingly, Kisame seemed to pick up on that. "Sorry for asking so many questions. Health care isn't really one of my strong points. I could tell you all sorts of things about sports and mechanics and tropical fish, but that's about it."

"Have you always wanted to become a mechanic?" Itachi asked him. As much as he wanted to recline the bed and take a nap, he was always curious about the man he lived with. It wasn't a conversation he necessarily had the time or desire to have with him before but there's never a time quite like the present. Especially when you have nowhere else to go and nothing else to talk about.

Kisame's mouth quirked in a lopsided grin as he sat back in his chair and looked out the window ahead of him. "Nope."

Interesting. "What changed your mind?"

"I was homeless."

Not a surprise. "Really."

Kisame nodded, oblivious to Itachi's lack of enthusiasm and explained. "Yup. I was homeless." He said. "Lived on the streets for a few days blowing through the money I had on fast food. When that ran out, I started stealing – swiping people's hash browns or French fries when they weren't looking."

Itachi pursed his lips, biting back the snap judgments he wanted to make regarding Kisame's former "lifestyle." Had he been in the same situation as Kisame, maybe he would've been pushed to thievery too. If anything, he would've at least attempted to find a job first.

"Yup. That lasted about a few days until some old lady told caught me and said that I could either take her burger and feel guilty about it later, or get a job and _earn_ that burger. I went job-hunting that same day." Kisame said. "But here's the thing; nobody wants to hire a kid with a limp and no real-world experience. All I knew how to do was play football, and after my injury, it was obvious that wasn't an option anymore."

"Hold on; what's this about a limp and an injury?" Itachi asked. The only things he knew about his roommate were the things he had told him such as how his friend had kicked him out when her boyfriend moved in, how his boss kicked him out so that he could retire, that his boss had died and that he worked as a mechanic for a living. Until now, Itachi knew nothing about the man's past; only his present.

"Ah, that." Kisame chuckled darkly. "I ruptured my Achilles tendon playing football my junior year of high school." He explained. "Took me out of the season and cost me my career as a professional football player."

Itachi didn't normally encourage after pipe dreams such as playing professional sports, but Kisame appeared to have the build for it. He might have turned out to be quite the superstar for any college football team had it not been for his injury, but nothing more than that. "I'm sorry to hear about that."

Kisame dismissed Itachi's comment with a flick of his wrist. "It's ancient history now. What about you? I know you work in an office building, but what do you do for a living?"

After prying into Kisame's personal life, Itachi shouldn't have been surprised that the man would divert the subject of conversation onto himself. "I work as a financial analyst." He could tell by Kisame's raised eyebrows and slightly parted lips that the man still didn't understand what it was that Itachi did. "I work with numbers and spreadsheets." He elaborated.

"Ah." Kisame nodded. "And what made you want to do something like _that_ for a living?"

"I've always been good at math and it paid good money." He said, mindful of the arrogant light his answer painted him in, but he didn't care. Kisame could interpret it any way he wanted but having money meant being able to provide for oneself or those close to them; a fact that Kisame of all people, should've been able to understand.

To Itachi's surprise, he answered "Understandably. Who doesn't want to make good money?"

"Yeah." Itachi agreed and watched Kisame rise to a stand.

"Well, Itachi, I gotta head out now. My shift at Hozuki's starts in forty-five minutes."

Itachi nodded. "That's fine. Thanks for coming to visit."

Kisame glanced over his shoulder and waved from the door. "Any time." He smiled and in a matter of seconds, he had disappeared down the hall.

When Kisame arrived in his Hozuki uniform, Itachi assumed that he had driven here straight from his shift at the sandwich shop. Instead, it appeared that, for whatever reason, Kisame was planning to visit Itachi before his shift at Hozuki's.

This wouldn't be the first time Itachi was wrong about Kisame.

* * *

**So now you know a little bit of Kisame's backstory...**

******To The Secret Sal: Did I update fast enough for you? And did you get your daily dose of Kisame vibes from this chapter?**

******To elric0sis: Thank you for the wonderful review! I intend to reply back to it shortly!**

******To Absolute Anarchy: I'm not sure if Kisame cheered Itachi up or not, but he definitely distracted him from the guilt trip he was about to embark on!**

**I can't say whether the next chapter will be a Kisame chapter, or an Itachi chapter, but I'm leaning towards it being a Kisame chapter (and it might be interesting; who knows?)**

**Until next time~**

**Sasori33-001**


	28. Chapter 28

It was remarkable how much information one could gather when one has nowhere to go and nothing better to do than lie in a hospital bed all day. Within the past day and a half, Itachi learned that Kisame's father had left his mother when he was five years old, leaving his mother to care for them both on her own. She was the one who nurtured his interest in athletics and instilled in him the notion that he could become a professional football player if he worked hard enough. And based on Kisame's retelling of his life story, he was quite the athlete in his youth. However, rupturing his Achilles tendon during his junior year of high school had not only shattered his dream of a career in professional sports, but any motivation he had to graduate high school and do anything else with his life. It would ultimately be this decision which led his mother to kick him out of the house at the age of eighteen. "You don't wanna get an education or work? Fine. Good luck finding somebody to support you, because I sure as _heck_ won't." She told him before slamming the door in his face.

Frustration was a feeling Itachi knew all too well, especially where money was concerned. More often than not, it was the main source of his stress after their father passed away. If it wasn't the utility bills, it was the rent; if it wasn't gas money, it was car payments; and if it wasn't funeral expenses, it was Sasuke's college tuition. There was a time where Itachi didn't even have a stable job, and yet he somehow managed to balance everything he was dealing with because no matter how hard he worked, his purpose remained unchanged. Sasuke was his only family, and Itachi was going to make _certain_ that they were never separated because they were all each other had left in this world.

But family dynamics differed from household to household and times have changed since Kisame was young, which was why Itachi simply nodded, gesturing for Kisame to continue with his story.

From there, Kisame stayed in motels and survived solely on fast-food before exhausting what little money he had and turning to thievery, a stint that lasted for about a week before he set off in search of employment. The opportunity arose when a man beckoned him to help him fix a problem with his car one day. "Those are some pretty big muscles 'ya got there; what do you do in your spare time?" The man had asked him.

"I work out." Kisame responded back.

The man grunted and replied "Muscles like that would do wonders at my auto-shop. You got a job, son?" And one thing led to another before Kisame was employed at Suikzan's Auto and Repair Shop where he would work at the shop in exchange for a place to stay.

While Itachi didn't much care for long conversations centering around one's past (the past was the past for a reason, he believed), Kisame had appeared at his hospital room the next day stating that he felt bad for leaving on such short notice the day before and thought Itachi could do with some company.

_I think you're the one in need of company; not me._ Itachi thought bitterly. It wasn't so much his politeness than his need for mental stimulation that he allowed Kisame to stay. That, and the chemotherapy drugs had long since kicked in, leaving him in need of a distraction of some kind to take his mind off the overwhelming nausea he had been battling since the early hours of the morning.

"So, yeah." Kisame concluded. "I guess you can say that my mom's the reason I became a mechanic." He shrugged.

"In a way, I guess you could." Itachi agreed.

The pair sat in silence for a few moments before Kisame spoke again. "Speaking of, do your folks know that you're in here?"

"Both of my parents are dead."

Kisame blinked in shock a few times. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that. How old were they when they died?"

This man's mouth had no filter, it seemed. "My mother was forty-two when she died in a car accident almost ten years ago, and my father died of a heart attack at the age of fifty six years ago." He answered, hoping that the detailed description would give Kisame the hint.

"I see." He bowed his head. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Thanks." He said, eyes fixated on the mountains and valleys created by the blanket covering his legs. He inhaled, hoping that by doing so, it would dissolve the ever growing lump at the back of his throat that was making it increasingly difficult to breathe steadily.

"I know you said that you and your brother aren't on good terms right now, but if I were him, I'd put whatever it is that's going on between you aside and at least attempt to visit you." Kisame said.

"Yeah." Itachi choked out as his throat constricted. _Oh no, it's happening; get the bowl. _He reached over to where a large, plastic bowl sat by the bed in times such as these and hunched over it as his stomach constricted. _Kisame's there. He's watching. You're showing weakness in front of him. _In a matter of seconds, the bile from his stomach forced itself up his esophagus, out of his mouth, and into the waiting bowl he clutched in his hands. _I don't care._

"I should probably go." Kisame said with eyes filled with worry. "You need your rest, after all."

_Sure, now you decide to leave._ Itachi nodded and coughed into the bowl. "Yeah."

"Rest up." Kisame told him with a small nod, and before Itachi knew it, he was completely alone again in a room that smelled of vomit.

A shaky hand moved to the side of the bed where the "CALL" button was located to signal one of the nurses. Weren't you supposed to feel better upon expelling the waste that made you so ill in the first place, he wondered. But bacteria wasn't the culprit this time. He knew full well that this was chemo-induced nausea and he had four and a half more days of this left to endure.

With a heavy sigh, he leaned his head back against the pillows and let his eyelids drift shut.

"Itachi?"

He opened his eyes at the familiar voice calling his name. Standing at the door in a pair of track pants and a fitted athletic tee was a face Itachi hadn't been expecting to see for a while. "Hey." Itachi breathed, his voice raspy from the stomach acid burning his throat.

"Itachi," Sasuke said, crossing the room in long strides, "I'm so sorry. I should've been here sooner."

Itachi gently set the bowl in his lap onto the bedside table and opened his arms to embrace his younger sibling. "It's okay." He said into his neck. "You're here now, and that's all that matters."

* * *

**You're all going to kill me, I know, but you should be happy because Sasuke is finally here to support his big brother! Yay! *applause* Plus, if I gave you guys everything you wanted every time, I would get less reviews than I get from dragging it out and who knows, y'all might stop reading once Sasuke shows up! "Whelp! Sasuke showed up and Itachi is happy, therefore, I am happy and can die in peace and quit reading!" Just kidding. I know y'all are gonna stick it out 'til the end, right? That's what I thought... ;)**

******To Lookitallthecake: It only took 3 chapters, and 6 days in real-time, but Sasuke has finally appeared! (and in story-time, it took less than a week; this chapter takes place on July 15th!) This chapter was for you, sweetie! *cheers***

******To AbsoluteAnarchy: This chapter met my 1,000 word quota (1,177 words without the author's note at the end ;)**

**The next chapter is going to be an Itachi chapter (surprise!), but I don't know when I'm going to get around to updating it. Probably not this weekend. Next week, maybe? (I really need to update Things Better Left Unsaid and think about all those other stories I started and didn't plan...*sigh*)**

**Until next time~**

**Sasori33-001**

**PS: In chapter 25, I mentioned that Kisame knew most of Itachi's family was deceased. I realized while typing up this chapter that that was a false statement - Kisame did NOT know that most of Itachi's family (his parents, at least) were deceased until now. I apologize for those of you who may have caught that little tidbit and wanted to know that I have since fixed it. The reason I thought Kisame knew was because in a previous rewrite, when Itachi and Kisame first met, Itachi betrayed more information about himself, his family, and his past and I rewrote it so that he only told Kisame the most relevant details about his life - not his entire life story.**


	29. Chapter 29

**Sorry it took so long! I didn't actually know what Sasuke and Itachi were going to talk about until this morning! (That, and I had other stories in serious need of updating!) With that being said, I hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

The sight of Sasuke at the door of his hospital room simultaneously released a heavy weight from his shoulders and a burden from his heart, causing tears that had nothing to do with nausea escape from the corners of his eyes as he embraced his brother. But in the back of his mind, he knew that this encounter wasn't going to be sunshine and rainbows as there were things he needed to discuss with Sasuke that his brother probably didn't want to hear.

"Itachi, I'm so sorry." Sasuke said, pulling away from the embrace. "You called me when I was at work, so I didn't get the message until later, and then I thought that you were just trying to toy with me and ignored it because I was tired and didn't want to be bothered with it."

A small smile played at the corners of Itachi's mouth as his brother confessed to thinking that Itachi was "toying with him." He always thought everyone was out to get him, even since they were kids. "It's fine, Sasuke; I understand."

"No, it's not fine!" Sasuke yelled and brought a hand up to the bridge of his nose in frustration. "I was acting like an immature brat thinking that you were just calling to nag me about my life choices or whatever. I never thought that you were in the _hospital_."

"But you received my message and that's all that matters at the moment. I'm just glad that you're here now." Itachi said.

Sasuke shook his head. "Yeah. I got your message. _A_ _fucking week later._ And that was only because my boss called while I was in the shower this morning and left a message that I decided to listen to yours first." Sasuke huffed. "Even then I had to call around to every hospital in the God damned area to figure out where you were being treated! I mean, what kind of sibling isn't there for the brother who practically raised him after his parents died when he gets admitted to the hospital for _cancer_ for God's sake!"

Itachi's gaze softened in response to Sasuke's tirade. "Sasuke, it's fine. Don't be so hard on yourself." He soothed.

"No! It's not fine, Itachi! If I wasn't so busy being such a dick, I could've been there for you when you needed me most!" He sighed and shook his head in self-loathing. "How long are you even going to be in here for?" He pulled up a chair to sit by Itachi's bedside.

"A month." Itachi replied, fully aware that Sasuke wasn't going to be happy with the answer.

And just as quickly as he had taken his seat, Sasuke was back on his feet, knocking the chair backwards in the process. "Wait? A month!? What the hell?! Why do you have to be here for a fucking month?!"

"Please watch your language." Itachi admonished, but Sasuke was livid.

"_Shut up, Itachi_! How do you expect me to watch my fucking language when you've been in the hospital for a fucking week and I didn't know it, and now you're telling me that you have to stay here for a _fucking month!? _What the hell, Itachi?! Why do you have to stay here for a month!?"

If Itachi didn't feel tired before, he certainly felt tired now in the face of his little brother's anger. "Sasuke, I have leukemia which is cancer of the bone marrow. It's not the same as any other type of cancer where I can come in to receive radiation therapy and go home that same day or schedule surgery to remove a cancerous tumor; the cancer I have is wide spread and takes time to eliminate. In addition to that, I'm at risk for infection in my immunocompromised state, meaning I can't afford to leave the sterilized environment of the hospital."

"And this process takes a month?" Sasuke asked and picked up his chair to take a seat once more.

Itachi nodded and wondered how long Sasuke would stay in it this time. "The first week is dedicated to a round of chemotherapy which targets and eliminates the cancerous cells. The following three weeks are dedicated to monitoring wherein the doctors will see if the chemotherapy has done its job or not." He sighed. "And if it doesn't, I might need a bone marrow transplant."

"And if it comes to that?"

"I need to find a donor." Itachi answered.

Sasuke regarded him carefully and replied. "I'll be your donor."

Itachi averted his gaze to the window on his right. "It's not that easy, I'm afraid. While siblings are usually the closest match, that isn't always the case."

"And if I'm not a match?"

"Then the doctors will have to find one through the national bone marrow registry and then we'll wait and see how it goes from there." He sighed. "But I hope it doesn't come down to that."

Sasuke nodded in understanding. "So you're going to be here for at least a month, correct?"

"Correct. Which means I won't be out in time to celebrate your birthday next week." Itachi smiled sadly.

"I don't care about that." Sasuke said. "I feel like shit for not being by your side through this, and I don't want to miss a thing ever again."

Itachi furrowed his brow. "Sasuke, I hope you're not going to quit your job because of this, you need the money to—"

"You don't think I know that, Itachi?!" Sasuke yelled and took a deep breath to regain his composure. "I'm not quitting my job, alright? But I am going to stay back at your place while you're being treated for this."

"Right." Itachi replied with uncertainty. He had a feeling that the conversation would take this turn, thus bringing forth the issues they had temporarily put to rest just a few minutes ago. "If that's what you plan on doing, I'm afraid you'll have to sleep in my bedroom instead of yours."

"And why is that, exactly?"

* * *

**Ooh, things are starting to heat up, aren't they?**

**Unfortunately, I don't know when I am going to get around to updating the next chapter (soon, hopefully!), but I do know that it will be a Kisame chapter!**

******To AbsoluteAnarchy: Sorry! Sasuke (in my opinion), ended up being the total ass you were hoping he wouldn't be! *shrug* Little brothers, right?**

******To The Secret Sal: Are you satisfied now? ;)**

**Until next time!**

**~Sasori33-001**


	30. Chapter 30

**So it would seem like I have a little mini rotation going on with my stories here as of late. It doesn't follow a particular order - it's just a matter of knowing what I'm doing and how fast I can accomplish it. Since the chapters for this story are short and I haven't updated it in a while, it was the first on my list. So this morning I sat down, brainstormed some ideas and cranked out a chapter. (The only sad part is that I didn't get to upload it until now :( But oh well! Here I am now, and here is chapter 30 (yay!) of Parallel Lines. Enjoy~ ;)**

* * *

When your roommate tells you that you'll have the apartment to yourself for a full month, your first thought is to go crazy and do all the things you couldn't do when your roommate was around like walk through the place butt naked all day, invite friends over, order pizza every night, eat on the couch, watch endless hours of the show your roommate hates, talk to yourself, let your trash sit around for a few days before throwing it away and doing pretty much whatever else you wanted to do but couldn't when you were living with another person. Especially when that other person was an antisocial, well-to-do neat freak like Itachi was.

When your roommate was still a stranger to you, however, the rules of the game changes a little bit. You then have the power to wander through all the rooms that were once restricted to you and are free to sell their precious belongings on the internet and disappear before they learn what hit them while they were away.

But not Kisame. At forty-one years old, Kisame was too old to throw wild parties and invite friends over like a teenager whose parents left town for the weekend. That, and he didn't have any friends to invite over. Even if he was younger and still _had_ friends, he respected Itachi too much to trash their shared apartment while he was getting treatment for his cancer. And it was for that reason that he didn't dare enter Itachi's bedroom or touch any of his roommate's belongings while he was gone.

But nobody said there was anything wrong with watching crime scene investigation shows for hours on end on the flat screen TV, clad in only your boxer shorts. He was in the middle of grabbing a drink from the fridge when he heard the tumblers of the front door rotating and clicking, signaling that somebody was trying to break in.

What did he do?! He could've sworn that he locked the door when he came back from work this afternoon, but maybe he didn't? Well, he'd most definitely need to look for another place to live after today…

He couldn't let that happen. He worked too hard to gain Itachi's trust, and he damn sure wasn't going to break it by letting some punk break in while he was away.

"Hello? Anybody home?" A young man asked, pushing open the door. "What the fuck?" He exclaimed when he saw Kisame jump out from behind one of the kitchen cabinets and swing at him.

-8-8-8-

"I said I'm sorry!" Kisame apologized for the millionth time.

Sasuke didn't pay him any mind as he stalked into Itachi's bedroom, muttering "Fucking Itachi and his fucking psycho-ass roommate."

When he re-appeared a few moments later, Kisame blocked his path. "I said I'm sorry! Look kid, can we please start over?"

"Sure." Sasuke smiled and extended his hand to shake Kisame's. "Hi. My name is _I'm-going-to-have-a-black-eye-tomorrow-because-of-you._ And you are? Oh wait, I don't give a fuck. Introductions over. Goodbye now." He asked and stalked away.

"I thought you were a burglar or something!"

Sasuke scoffed. "Oh yeah, because all burglars have keys to their brother's apartment where they themselves _used to live_."

Kisame cringed as he thought of logical explanation for his actions that would make Sasuke see that he was sorry. "Listen, I honestly didn't know you were Itachi's brother!"

"Yeah, because Itachi and I look _so different_."

He was running out of excuses. "Itachi never talks about you. All I know is that you guys weren't talking to each other at the moment. I didn't know that you used to live here or even had a key!"

Sasuke stood poised at the front door, one hand clasped loosely around the handle. "Hey, do me a favor and stay the hell away from me, okay?"

"Wait, where are you going? I said I'm sorry!" Kisame called after him.

"Back to the hospital."

"I said I'm sorry!"

"Yeah, I heard you the last fifty fucking times. It's bad enough that Itachi is letting you sleep in my room; the last thing I want is to be punched in the face when I wake up tomorrow morning." He said and disappeared down the hallway.

Kisame sighed and fell back onto the couch. "And I thought Itachi was bad."

* * *

**Sorry! Short chapter, I know, but the chapters for this story have never been really long (especially the Kisame) chapters. What's more, this chapter (at 745 words) is far from the shortest (at 400something words) so y'all should be happy (I don't know if The Secret Sal is happy that Kisame punched Sasuke in the face, but hey, someone had to step up to the plate and take one for the team!) The next chapter is set to be an Itachi chapter, and I do not know how long it will take me to get around to updating it. (I seriously need to continue Things Better Left Unsaid and want to work on Shisui's Guide to Being a Wingman unless an idea for chapter 31 strikes me and I feel the overwhelming need to sit down and write it) But for now, review and tell me what you thought of the big 3-0~**

******To AbsoluteAnarchy: Well...he didn't really get the _chance_ to behave himself before Kisame took a slugger to his face so...does he still get ice cream or no?**

**Until next time,**

**Sasori33-001**


	31. Chapter 31

**Author's Note:** So I understand that this chapter is loooonnnngggggg overdue. And I apologize. I have been so busy these past two months you wouldn't even believe. Too busy to upload a 2,000 word story? Yes. And as I have explained on my profile page, I had most of this chapter written, but needed to go back and tighten up the dialogue a bit. Which I did. This morning. And then I added to it and thought through the schematics of this chapter and how what happens here might affect future chapters and viola! A new chapter!

Again, sorry for the wait! Hope you enjoy!

* * *

"Good morning Sa—suke what happened to your eye?! Did you get into a fight or something?" He asked, leaning over to inspect his younger brother's eye.

"Yeah. With your psychotic roommate."

When Itachi agreed to let Kisame move in with him, he once considered what would happen if Kisame were to ever meet his explosive sibling. _Hopefully it doesn't come to fisticuffs._ He remembered musing.

And here it did. "When did this happen?"

Sasuke sat down on the edge of the bed to allow Itachi to examine his injury. "Last night."

_"__Last night!?"_ Itachi asked. Sasuke shrugged and took a seat on the cot the hospital provided for him to sleep on for the night. "Wait, come back; I didn't get a good look at it."

"It's a black eye, Itachi." Sasuke groaned. "There's nothing to see."

Itachi ignored him and gently tilted Sasuke's chin up so that his bangs fell from his face to reveal the discolored skin surrounding his eye. "How did I not know about this? You said it happened last night?"

"I didn't tell you because you were sleeping when I came back."

Itachi sighed. "Alright. What did you do?"

_"__What did I do?_ _I_ didn't do anything! Itachi, in case you haven't noticed, _I'm_ the one with the black eye!"

"If you didn't do anything, then why do you have a black eye? I only asked what _you_ did because most strangers don't throw punches unless they have a vendetta against you." He crossed his arms and reclined against the bed. "Plus, you weren't very happy with me when I told you that I was looking for a roommate in the first place."

"Because you didn't _want_ a roommate, and I can't believe you're taking his side over mine!"

Itachi ran a hand through his bangs, a nervous habit he had never been able to break, and said "I'm not taking his side. At least, not before I hear what you have to say." He smiled, taking a phrase straight from Sasuke's defense attorney repertoire. When he pulled his hand free from his bangs, he noticed several long obsidian strands of hair tangled between his fingertips. And while it didn't take much to lose a few strands of hair when brushing it or running his hand through it, this was a lot.

"_I didn't do anything, Itachi._" Sasuke gritted out.

Itachi took a deep breath to calm his steadily climbing heartbeat and sighed.

"When I got there, I unlocked the door, asked if anybody was home, and the next thing I knew, your freak of a roommate jumped out from the kitchen in his boxers and punched me in the eye!" He said, shaking his head.

Itachi quickly seized the opportunity to shake off the stray strands of hair over the side of the bed when Sasuke wasn't looking and responded "I'm not sure what to say to that."

"That's fine, because I do. How about _"_my roommate is fucking insane and I should've never allowed him to live with me in the first place?!'"

"Sasuke, calm down. Although I can't see him acting like that, I'm sure he had a reason for his actions."

"Okay, Sasuke, calm down. I'm sure he had a logical explanation for his actions—"

"Itachi! There is nothing logical about jumping somebody's brother in your boxers!"

Itachi sighed. "Okay. Let me re-phrase that. Did he say anything to you?"

"Before or after he punched me?"

"At all. Did he say anything at all?" Itachi asked. Despite the fact that he was getting treatment for his cancer, he still found it hard to stay awake during the day. And arguing with a defense attorney wasn't helping matters any.

"He kept saying something like 'I thought you were a burglar' or something." Sasuke recounted. "What burglar owns the key to somebody's apartment?"

Itachi regarded him with a knowing look. "Sasuke, you of all people should know that there are many ways to gain access to someone's apartment." At least he knew Kisame would protect his apartment from anyone who tried to intrude, even if that person happened to be his younger brother.

"He could've asked who I was at least." Sasuke muttered. "Where did you even find this guy? Do you know him from somewhere?"

"He was the first person to answer the ad I placed in the local newspaper." Itachi stated honestly, knowing full well that his candor was going to elicit a very verbal and possibly profane response from Sasuke.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait – let me get this straight; you put an ad in the paper asking a complete _stranger_ to live with you?! Itachi! What if a serial killer showed up at your doorstep?!"

_Wait for it…_

"You could've been fucking killed! How fucking moronic can you be!?"

There. Itachi expected as much from his ever composed little brother. "I took precautions."

"Like what?" Sasuke asked, sitting back to lean against the window.

It was too early in the day for him to be answering questions concerning the decisions he made when he was overwhelmed with fatigue caused by his leukemia. "Let's see…" Itachi said, looking skyward as if the white hospital ceiling tiles would help him remember, "I didn't give my address; I did provide a phone number…"

"Oh, great, so that random strangers can give out your number and claim it as theirs so that they don't have to be bothered with it themselves. God knows how many people are signing you up for random shit."

Ignoring him, Itachi continued. "And when they gave me a call, I provided them with my address and scheduled a time to meet so that I could conduct a formal interview to assess their character."

"Great. So not only do these random psychopaths have your phone number but they have your address too. Fan-fucking-tastic."

"I only provided one person with my address because only one person called me." Itachi replied. "And he currently lives with me."

Sasuke shrugged, impassive to this new piece of information. "Doesn't matter. He could still be using your phone number, you know."

Itachi sighed. "I have yet to receive any odd numbers calling my cell so I doubt that Kisame had any ulterior motives. And before you say that a random stranger could still capitalize on the number I've given, I can always get a new one."

Sasuke regarded him carefully as if any flaws in his logic were written somewhere in his tired eyes. "He may not have done anything suspicious yet, but I don't trust a guy who randomly attacks people in only their boxes. Like, what the fuck?"

Itachi shrugged. In the small amount of time he spent living with Kisame, he never saw the man wear anything less than a shirt and pants. Thankfully, he had chosen to strip his shirt when he knew that Itachi wouldn't be present for a while. The same couldn't be said for his poor brother, though, who was most likely scarred for life after stumbling upon such a sight.

"I mean, what does this guy even _do_ for a living anyways?" Sasuke demanded.

"He used to work for Suikazan's Auto &amp; Repair Shop on the other side of town until it went out of business last month. Now he's working part time at Hozuki's – the little sandwich shop by the bridge – and the convenience store a couple of blocks down from the apartment." Itachi explained.

Sasuke knitted his brow. "He's working two part-time jobs? And he's helping you pay for your rent?"

Itachi nodded.

"What the hell!? I could've done that!"

"Nobody told you that you needed to move out right away." Itachi commented.

A pointed glare was his immediate response before Sasuke rerouted the line of conversation. "How do you go from being a mechanic to working two part time jobs that pay minimum wage?"

"I already told you." Itachi said evenly. "His previous place of employment went out of business last month and this is all he could manage in order to afford a place to live."

Sasuke scoffed. "Barely, I bet. Your apartment isn't cheap."

"He's doing well."

"Is he doing all of this until he finds another job calling for a mechanic?" Sasuke asked.

"I don't know." Itachi answered.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Contrary to what you may think, Kisame and I are not what you call 'close,' Sasuke."

Sasuke furrowed his brow in confusion. "But you live with him. A minute ago, you were telling me all about where he used to work when he was still a mechanic and what he does now, but you don't know anything else about this guy? Itachi—"

"Before you say anything, let me explain. I only what Kisame does for a living because it came up when I was interviewing him. Despite what you think, I took the time to learn a little bit about the man who was looking for a place to stay before I gave him the go ahead to move in with me. He told me that he was a mechanic who worked at the auto shop across town and that he had recently lost his job and had found a part-time job working at Hozuki's."

Sasuke opened his mouth to say more but Itachi quickly cut him off.

"I was hesitant to hire someone earning minimum wage making sandwiches and was about to dismiss him so that I could search for a roommate elsewhere, but he insisted that he would work hard to earn my trust and help pay his share of the rent if I granted him to the opportunity to move in with me. So I gave him two weeks to find another job in addition to his pre-existing one at the sandwich shop and advised him to call me if he was successful in his endeavor. He was and after examining his proof of employment, I agreed to let him move in. Since then, I haven't had many conversations with him about his personal life." He said, omitting the conversation he had with Kisame the other day about his past as Sasuke probably wouldn't have cared to hear how Kisame became a mechanic. All that interested Sasuke for some reason, was why Kisame didn't pursue being a mechanic.

Sasuke maintained eye contact with Itachi as he sat with his arms crossed. He wasn't trying to decipher whether or not Itachi was telling the truth or trying to find any flaws in Itachi's reasoning. But it was clear that he was thinking about something.

"Sasuke?" Itachi asked, breaking Sasuke's concentration. "Is everything alright?"

"Hm? Yeah, yeah, everything's fine. I was just crunching some numbers in my head. That's all." He answered.

"Really? You looked like you were in deep thought. Trying to decide if making sandwiches pays better than selling athletic equipment?" Itachi joked.

"Hell no!" Sasuke said with a look of distaste. "I was just trying to figure out what I could do to help."

Itachi highly doubted that was what Sasuke had been thinking about for the past couple of minutes, but was too exhausted to figure out the complicated inner workings of his little brother's mind. "You don't need to do anything to help me, Sasuke. As long as you focus on paying your own rent in time and stop by to visit every now and again, I think I'll make a speedy recovery." He smiled.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Itachi. Whatever you say."

* * *

**Uh-oh. Sasuke's thinking. We all know what happens when Sasuke gets to thinking, don't we?**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please stay tuned for more in the (hopefully) near future!**

**Until next time~**

**Sasori33-001**

**PS: I have no idea what the next chapter will be about or whose POV it will be in :( You'll just have to wait and see, I guess!**

**PSS: I just realized after posting the new chapter that this story has 50,000 words now! AHHHHHHHH! *cheers***


	32. Chapter 32

**Author's Note: **Okay, this may sound really, really, stupid, but I wasn't planning on updating _this_ fic today. (although I do recall saying something along the lines of that on my profile page, didn't I? Hm...) But the next chapter of my other fic, The Boy with the Ponytail and The Perfect Gentleman weren't working out for me earlier so I focused on updating this one. That, and I was feeling sort of lonely and figured that if I updated a chapter, people would talk to me :(

Enjoy!

* * *

Twenty-nine days.

It had taken Kisame twenty-nine days to successfully ruin his changes of living with Itachi any longer after what he had done on Monday evening.

"How could I be so _stupid?_" Kisame muttered to himself as he disposed his plastic gloves in the garbage can under the sandwich counter. After all of his hard work pleading Itachi to give him a chance to prove his worth, earning the man's trust and working his ass off to be able to pay his share of the rent, he had managed to throw it all away with a poor judgment call.

If it had been a random stranger, it'd be a whole 'nother ball game. But he hadn't punched a random stranger. It _had_ to be Itachi's younger brother. All chances of forgiveness and redemption were completely off the table now. He'd be lucky to have a place to stay by the end of the week. But he refused to get his hopes high. He would act as though Itachi were kicking him out by tomorrow afternoon.

"See you around, Mangetsu." Kisame called to his boss as he exited the store.

"Take care, Kisame!" Mangetsu called back.

The corners of Kisame's mouth quirked upwards in a twisted smile. _Take care,_ he thought bitterly,_ I had the chance to take care of myself and screwed that up too. Figures._

But as bleak as things looked, a part of Kisame couldn't give up hope yet. He still wanted to live with Itachi, and after all, he didn't _mean_ to punch his brother in the face! Hell, he didn't even think that the brothers were even on speaking terms given how little Itachi talked about him. And then he turns up at the apartment unannounced with a key? It would've been nice if Itachi had at least mentioned "Oh, by the way, if my brother does turn up, he has a key to the unit, so please don't punch him. Thanks." That would've been nice. But Itachi wasn't stupid. He didn't strike Kisame as the type to automatically jump to conclusions and take sides. And besides, he and his brother didn't seem all that close, so maybe Itachi would take Kisame's side instead? Itachi was a logical person. He would wait until he had all the information to make a decision. Right? Kisame sure hoped so.

But what if Itachi wasn't so understanding? What if he took his brother's side without hearing what Kisame had to say? What was the point of visiting Itachi in the hospital without knowing what Itachi would do? Kisame would either show up, plead his case, and receive Itachi's forgiveness, or be told to pack his bags and leave.

But it was an innocent mistake! Itachi would have to take that into consideration, wouldn't he?

These were all questions that Kisame had been exercising since Itachi's brother (Kisame couldn't quite remember what his name was), stormed out of the apartment. God knows what he told Itachi when he arrived back at the hospital that night. _"This freak wearing his boxers punched me in the face without looking to see who I was first!"_ He could imagine him telling Itachi.

Kisame sighed. That didn't sound good for him. On top of that, it had been a few days since the incident had taken place, which gave Itachi plenty of time to consider what he wanted to do with regards to Kisame. _Maybe I should've pled my case sooner,_ Kisame thought, _it's too late now…._

He hated this. He hated being uncertain. He hated not knowing if he would have a roof over his head and a bed to sleep in come Saturday. He hated picturing Itachi's piercing eyes and pursed lips. Unreadable as always. But on top of everything, Kisame hated himself for being so careless. He made enough trouble for himself in all of his forty-one years of living. He didn't need to make any more and yet, here he was, jeopardizing his living situation yet again. What was this, the fourth time that's happened to him? Whatever. It didn't matter anymore. What mattered now was finding something to take the edge off.

"What the hell?" Before him, there was a large electronic sign that read "BRIDGE CONSTRUCTION, 07/18, ONE LANE ROAD AHEAD, SIDEWALK CLOSED" Of all the days for the bridge to be closed, it had to be today. And the worst part was, Kisame knew that this was going to happen, but he didn't think that it was happening so soon. With the sidewalk closed, it would be nearly impossible for him to look out above the water like he always had, and the sound of construction vehicles digging up the concrete and workers yelling at each other several feet away wouldn't allow him to collect his thoughts.

He could always go back to Suikazan's but given his shitty luck as of late, he'd be arrested for squatting on property that wasn't legally his. _At least if I'm arrested, I'll have a roof over my head and be served three meals a day._

Not knowing what to do and where else to go, Kisame started walking back to Itachi's apartment. Why, he did not know. He just allowed his feet to take him somewhere, anywhere, in hopes that the short walk would give him enough time to clear his head.

It hadn't. By the time he reached the glass doors of Itachi's apartment building, he only hated himself even more than he did twenty minutes ago. Stepping into the elegant lobby only reinforced what was at stake, what he was about to lose. It reminded him what had gotten him in this predicament in the first place. He punched his roommate's brother thinking that he was a robber. And somehow or another, he was going to suffer from the consequences. Hell_,_ he was already suffering from the consequences. Wasn't that enough?

Kisame wanted to forget about everything. He wanted to forget about Itachi and what he say to Kisame when he got the chance to talk to him again. He wanted to forget about Monday night when he punched Itachi's brother by accident. He wanted to forget about Suikazan, Miru, his mother and everything else that had ever caused him pain in life. But the more he thought about it, the more he came to realization that all of those things were not the cause of his pain.

It was himself. He was the reason for the way his life was. It was all his fault.

Upon entering their shared unit, Kisame headed for the bathroom that he always used and looked around for something that would numb him. Something that would erase the pain completely. But there was nothing. Nothing behind the mirror, nothing on the counter or below the counter. Next, he checked every cabinet in the kitchen. He didn't know exactly what he was looking for, but he had a sinking feeling that whatever it was could only be found in Itachi's bathroom which could only be accessed by Itachi's bedroom. He'd already punched Itachi's sibling in the face. Did he want to burn that bridge completely by invading Itachi's personal space without knowing if Itachi was even mad at him?

It turns out that he didn't even need to think of an answer. Within the last cabinet he checked, he found what he was looking for – over the counter medications. Prescription meds were desirable of course, but it was likely that Itachi kept those in his own bathroom, but these would do the trick just as well.

Kisame examined the various pill bottles before him. There was a tiny container of pain medication, but that wouldn't be enough. There were several forms of vitamin bottles and daily supplements but those wouldn't do either. And then he found it – a large bottle of pain medication.

Ahead of him, his left hand reached for the bottle, and with the help of his right hand, unscrewed the lid to unveil hundreds of little brown tablets that were smaller than an M&amp;M and in a matter of seconds, he was pouring as many as he could fit into the palm of his hand. He didn't care that some spilled over onto the counter and onto the tile floor. None of that mattered now. And none of it would matter in a few hours.

Nothing would matter.

"What are you doing?"

He had apparently been too focused on the task at hand to hear the front door open and looked from Itachi's brother's look of confusion to the mound of pills in his palm. Maybe he couldn't see what was in Kisame's hand? That was ridiculous. Of course he could. He was staring right at them and if he couldn't see how many pills were cradled in his large palm, the large pill bottle was a dead giveaway. "I have a headache." Kisame lied.

Sasuke's dark eyes darted back and forth as he tried to comprehend what was currently taking place. "A headache is going to be the least of your problems if that's what you're taking to get rid of it! Do you want to end up brain dead?!"

_Yeah, actually, I do._ "It's a really bad headache and my hand was shaking when I tilted the bottle." He said and poured a majority of the tablets back into the container.

Sasuke didn't seem to buy it and stalked over to where Kisame was standing. "If it's that bad, then take three." He said, dropping three tablets into Kisame's hand. "I assume you know where to find a glass to take some water with, correct?"

Same ashen colored skin. Same midnight colored hair. Same emotionless eyes. Same straight to the point attitude. There was no doubt that this kid was Itachi's brother.

"You do know where Itachi keeps his glasses, don't you?" Sasuke reiterated when Kisame made no attempt to move.

"Yeah." He said and swallowed the pills dry. Sasuke watched, but did not comment and focused instead on cleaning up the pill tablets from the counter and floor.

"Itachi wants to talk to you when you have time." He said.

Fuck. "About what?" _Kicking me out?_

Sasuke shrugged. "He just told me to tell you that he wants to talk to you whenever you have time." He said. "He's not mad at you if that's what you're worried about."

Kisame glanced at the pill bottle sitting atop the counter and immediately felt his heart constrict. So Itachi wasn't mad at him after all. And Kisame nearly resorted to OD'ing based on a wayward assumption that he was? Just one more mistake to add to his ever growing list. "He's not?"

"No." Sasuke scoffed and muttered something incomprehensible under his breath. "He believes that it was an accident, but he wants to talk to you anyways."

Great_._ So Kisame wasn't completely off the hook just yet, was he?

"I'm sorry about what happened on Monday ni—" He attempted to say when Sasuke held up a hand.

"Save it." He said and Kisame immediately kept quiet.

While he and Itachi might look the same, their personalities were drastically different. And for that, Kisame was grateful.

* * *

**God, Kisame, why...thank goodness Sasuke showed up! (Never thought I say that!)**

**I really wish that I could tell you if the next chapter will be an Itachi chapter or a Kisame chapter, but I honestly have no idea what will happen in the next chapter so I don't know :(**

******To the Secret Sal: Thank you for acting as a springboard for my every-changing and very chaotic flow of ideas! ~ tsb ;P**

**Until next time~**

**Sasori33-001**


	33. Chapter 33

**Author's Note****:** Wow, over 2,000 words without my long winded author's notes to beef it up! How long has it been since that's happened? I'll be well on my way to 100,000 words if I keep this up! (Not really, I'm not aiming for a certain word count, though I'd be cool to join the 100,000 club I think~)

One more thing before you start reading: _I_ got up in my feels when I was 3/4 of the way through writing this, so be warned~

But other than that - enjoy!

* * *

The first time Kisame had ever been sent to the principal's office was when he was in the fourth grade and would not stay in his seat, even after his teacher had given him multiple warnings on several occasions to do so. He just didn't see the point in sitting in a chair all day. To him it felt like punishment. And try as he might, one minute he was sitting, and the next he was on his feet trying to see what his friends across the room were doing.

"Kisame. Please remain seated." His teacher would say to him.

That was his first warning. And the first time that it happened, he immediately felt his face flush with embarrassment as his friends attempted to stifle their amusement.

"Kisame." His teacher sighed as this disruptive behavior continued. "How many times have I told you to stay in your seat?"

That was his second warning. Again, his friends would snicker, but so would Kisame. Not only had he gotten called out in front of the class _again_, but he had proven that he could get away with it.

"Kisame. If you continue to disrupt class, I am going to send you to the principal's office."

That was the third warning. This elicited a wave of wide eyed classmates and a chorus of quite "oohs" from all around him. And while Kisame had unlocked a new level of defiance, being sent to the principal's office was something that would result in a phone call home, and _that_ was the most terrifying punishment of all and something that Kisame wanted to avoid.

And he managed to do so. For about a week.

Apparently, his teacher had become so frustrated with his insistence to rise from his seat that she no longer warned him to sit down and one day simply pointed to the door and said "To the principal's office." And when he did not move, she added a firm _"NOW."_

The walk of shame that resulted shortly thereafter was like nothing he had ever felt before. All around him, his classmates were staring, even though his teacher had hissed at them to get on with their work and to ignore Kisame and that they too would receive a free pass to the principal's office if they didn't comply. And over the short, two minute walk to the office, Kisame's head was filled with questions. What would he tell the principal? Would he have to say anything? Would his teacher call the principal and explain why he was being sent to the office? Would they know if he simply didn't go and wandered around the hallways for five or ten minutes? But the question that loomed over him like a storm cloud above his head was what would his mother say when she found out?

This wouldn't be the first time Kisame walked the walk of shame. But the more often he did so, the less he cared. Sure, his mother would yell and scream every time she got a call from the school saying that her son had earned yet another trip to the principal's office but after a while, he didn't care about that either. It was the same routine over and over again and it got old quickly.

But this was new. What did Itachi want to say to him? His kid brother – Sasuke, Kisame thought his name was – said that Itachi wasn't mad at him, but did the man _ever_ get mad? Mad for Itachi could've meant several things. Would he calmly inform Kisame that he "no longer desired to share a living space with another human being" and that Kisame had a week to find a new place? Or would he tell him "you punched my brother and that is something I cannot overlook" in that quiet voice of his and then tell him that he had exactly a week from today to find another place to live?

He almost kicked him out once before when he was diagnosed with cancer. He could very well do it again now that Kisame harmed his only family.

Kisame didn't know what to expect but if he expected the worse, then whatever Itachi had to say couldn't be that bad, could it?

When he reached Itachi's hospital room, he slowly reached his hand to clasp the cool metal doorknob, closed his eyes and inhaled to steady his nerves. It was his first trip to the principal's office all over again. Upon exhaling, he twisted the knob and let himself inside.

Each step had a dizzying effect upon him. He _punched_ Itachi's brother and now Itachi wanted to talk to him? On top of that, Sasuke nearly witnessed him trying to overdose in Itachi's kitchen. God knows whether or not he told Itachi about that. He probably did, because Kisame didn't fail to notice the absence of the headache medication he intended to end his life with yesterday. What more was there to say? "I forgive you for protecting my apartment from my brother?" Fat chance.

When Kisame finally rounded the corner of the sky blue curtain that divided the room into halves, he halted in his tracks. Itachi's bed was reclined so that he was sitting up, yet lying down at the same time. His head was tilted to the side and his hair was free from its usual ponytail and cascaded over his left shoulder in stringy ribbons against the steady rising and falling of his chest.

And Kisame was afraid of this man because…? He was helpless!

"Maybe I should come back…" Kisame whispered to himself and turned on his heel to head out.

"Oh, you're here." Itachi breathed.

Kisame froze and slowly turned to face him. Itachi was still lying against the hospital linens draping the bed and attempted to blink the sleep out of his eyes. "I can come back if you want me to—" Kisame attempted to say.

Itachi yawned and shook his head. "No, stay. I want to talk to you about some things."

Kisame opened his mouth to say "It can wait, can't it?" but he didn't even know what Itachi wanted to say to him. For all he knew, Itachi was kicking him out and that was something that _surely_ could not wait. "Are you up to it?" He finally settled upon.

Itachi nodded with closed eyes.

Kisame nodded in understanding and pulled a chair up to the side of Itachi's hospital bed.

"I'm sorry for not informing you that my brother had a key to my apartment. Had I told you sooner—"

"Wait, why are _you_ the one who's apologizing?" Kisame interrupted.

Itachi opened his eyes and blinked a few times, his facial expression gradually morphing from one of fatigue to steadily growing confusion.

"I should be the one to apologize." Kisame sighed. "I didn't look to see who it was first and a big guy like me has a pretty good chance of taking down anyone who threatens to rob you blind but I didn't. I guess…well first of all, I wasn't really dressed appropriately—"

"I heard."

Kisame pursed his lips and nodded. "Yeah. The odds would not bode well for me if a potential attacker was armed." He laughed. And to his surprised, Itachi chuckled slightly too. "Anyways, you don't need to apologize for anything. I should've looked to see who it was before throwing any punches."

Itachi smiled slightly and shook his head. "It's fine. It was an accident and you didn't know. Besides, I've always warned Sasuke that his words and actions would cause him harm if he didn't watch himself. Hopefully this will reinforce what I've been telling him all of these years."

Kisame slowly nodded and glanced to see if Itachi's current facial expression could give him a clue as to what the Uchiha would say or do next. It didn't. Itachi remained silent and poker faced as if waiting for Kisame to continue speaking. Although Kisame already plead his case, he couldn't help but add "And I understand if you want me to find someplace else to go."

"Kisame." Itachi started.

_If you continue to disrupt class, I am going to send you to the principal's office._ Kisame swallowed to dislodge the growing mass in the back of his throat.

"What?" Kisame asked.

And to his surprised, the corner of Itachi's mouth quirked upwards in the tiniest of smiles. "I'm not going to force you out onto the street for something you did by _accident_. Sasuke is fine and the discoloration will fade within a few weeks' time. Until then, there is nothing the correct shade of foundation cannot fix."

How was he so cool about this? Was it the chemo drugs? If so, Kisame wanted a taste so that he could possess even an _ounce_ of Itachi's calm and collected demeanor regarding the situation. "What exactly did your brother tell you?"

Itachi's dark pupils drifted to the left as he attempted to recall what Sasuke had said to him the other day. "He said that my psychopathic roommate gave him a black eye and was clad in only his boxer shorts." Itachi said. "He also mentioned that you kept saying that you thought that he was a burglar and that you apologized profusely after realizing your errors."

"Really?"

Itachi nodded. "Loosely paraphrased, but yes. I assume that lines up pretty accurately with your side of the story?"

"More or less." Kisame shrugged. He would have substituted the bit about the psychotic roommate wearing his boxers for a handsome stud wearing a pair of athletic shorts but that was neither here nor there.

"Are you still interested in pursuing a career in mechanical engineering?" Itachi asked all of a sudden. He seemed to pick up on that from Kisame's look of confusion and added "Sorry to change the subject but this was something else that I wanted to discuss with you."

Kisame sighed and scratched the outer edge of his ear. "I can't. When I tried to apply to different repair shops they all told me that I lacked the necessary certification needed to work for them."

"If I remember correctly, the first day I met with you in person, you told me that you would need to take classes in order to achieve the qualifications that you lack, correct?"

Kisame nodded and remembered to use his words like his teachers used to tell him all the time. "Yeah." Though a firm "yes" would've been more appropriate considering that he was talking to Itachi who was like the boss of his life right now it seemed…

"Have you looked into that at all?"

"No, I haven't. Why?" Kisame asked.

Itachi shifted slightly in his bed, causing his pillow to slip slightly. But when Kisame moved to reposition it for him and maybe fluff it if need be, Itachi uttered a quiet "No thanks, I can manage by myself" and reached behind him to push it back to where it had been just a few seconds ago. "If you're still interested in pursuing a career in mechanical engineering, and you would be willing to take the classes necessary to earn those qualifications, I would be willing to let you stay with me _rent free_."

_I would be willing to let you stay with me _rent free_. _

_I would be willing. To let you stay with me. _Rent Free_._

_Rent free._

"Just until you've earned your qualifications and no longer than that." He elaborated.

_Rent. _Free_._

No matter how many times Kisame repeated those very words inside his head, he couldn't bring himself to believe that what was happening was true. Maybe he really did overdose yesterday and this was a drug induced hallucination?

"Kisame? Kisame?"

"Sorry." Kisame said but still entertained the thought that he was possibly dying in an ambulance right now and that the place where he was going was definitely free of rent. "Why would you do that for me? You barely know me."

"You're right. I _don't_ know you very well. But in the small amount of time that I have known you, you've proven to me that you are somebody who can be trusted. You strike me as a man who's led a very hard life who deserves a break for once and I'm willing to give you one."

"But _why_, Itachi? _Why_ would you do that for somebody like me? I tri—" _I tried to kill myself in your kitchen yesterday afternoon,_ he caught himself from saying. "I don't deserve such kindness."

"I insist."

Kisame clenched his fists in his lap. "But why _me_?"

"Because I trust you."

_Because I trust you._

_I. Trust. You._

Kisame ran a hand through his messy hair. He was definitely dying in an ambulance somewhere right now. He had to be. It explained why his chest felt tight, why his stomach constricted, and why it seemed to be getting harder and harder to breathe. "There has to be a catch."

Itachi nodded.

"I knew it. I _knew_ that this was too good to be true." He muttered to himself.

"I will not kick you out." Itachi spoke, calmly as clearly as he had been this whole time. "And if you wish to pursue classes in mechanical engineering, I will allow you to live with me rent free."

Kisame exhaled carefully, as if the smallest breath would cause the deal to be taken off the table completely and glanced up to meet Itachi's bottomless irises.

"On the basis that you will not exceed the prescribed amount of _any_ medicine bottles while living under my roof, do I make myself clear?"

Of course Sasuke told him about that. "Crystal." Kisame nodded, finally able to breathe normally again.

And with that, Itachi closed his eyes and allowed his shoulders to slump slightly as he relaxed against the bed. "Good. I never want to hear that you were about to take your life over something as small as an accident." He said, opening his eyes again. "If you're so worried that I will kick you out, do not hesitate to talk to me about it. I'll listen."

_I'll listen._ Kisame seldom heard those words uttered to him before. And it felt good to hear them.

Kisame smiled at Itachi only to find that he had closed his eyes once more and appeared to be drifting off to sleep if the steady rising and falling of his chest was anything to go by. "If that's all, I guess I'll take my leave and let you rest."

"Will you look into those classes?" Itachi asked.

Kisame nodded and remembered to verbally respond "I will."

"Good. Let me know what you find so we can work out the details. I can't allow you to live with me rent free without proof that you are actually _taking_ classes. Understood?"

"Understood."

-8-8-8-

"What did the principal have to say when you arrived at her office, Kisame?" His teacher asked in a whisper so that his classmates wouldn't overhear.

"She said to listen to my teacher and that getting up out of my seat was distracting to my classmates." Kisame told her.

His teacher smiled and gently patted him on the back. "Remember that, okay? You're a good kid, Kisame."

* * *

**Sweet Jesus that was full of feels! But they were necessary feels! I hope you all have a good night/rest of the day and know that I have no idea where to go next! :D**

******To The Secret Sal: Have you reached your emotional/pain threshold yet? ;P (check the end of chapter 32 - I updated it to include a special shoutout just for you!)**

******To Mocho: If this chapter made you cry, I'm sorry! (But I warned y'all!)**

******To Esparia: Keep the hugs coming! Kisame's gonna need 'em!**

******To AbsoluteAnarchy: Are you happy with what Itachi had to say to Kisame~?**

******To everyone else who gives me lovely reviews that didn't contain anything specific the last time around for me to outwardly comment on - thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Your words are greatly appreciated!**

**Until next time!**

**~Sasori33-001**


	34. Chapter 34

"Carrot?"

Sasuke regarded the orange rectangular log pointing in his direction with a look of disdain and pushed it away. "No thanks."

"Are you sure?"

Sasuke nodded. "I'm not the one who's in the hospital and needs it. You eat it."

Itachi frowned and pushed the carrot slice into his mouth with soft crunch. "When was the last time you've eaten anything today?"

"I'm still full from breakfast." Sasuke answered.

"Which was?"

"At ten o'clock." He answered. "I ordered a sausage McMuffin with egg and a hash brown."

Itachi sighed. "I'm sure that there are better options out there than that…"

"I haven't done any grocery shopping in a while and money is tight." Sasuke explained.

"I understand. I just wanted to know if you had eaten anything before coming here, that's all." He said and quickly changed the subject. "You said that money is tight. Are you still working at the athletic store?"

Sasuke nodded slowly. "Yeah."

Itachi nodded too and bit the inside of his cheek. A part time job at selling athletic equipment wasn't nearly enough to pay off one's rent or utilities unless they had a roommate, which Itachi doubted Sasuke did. But as much as he wanted to voice his opinions, he held back for fear that Sasuke would blow up again about Itachi not trusting him and storm out of the room. And just when they were starting to rebuild their relationship again.

"I recently got a job at a sports bar as well." He added.

Itachi raised his eyebrows. "Really? Doing what?"

"Waiting tables."

"Any luck finding a hiring law firm?" Itachi asked. It was rare for Sasuke to bring up facts regarding his personal life without Itachi prompting him so he decided to ask the questions that had been on his mind as of late while Sasuke was feeling talkative.

Sasuke shook his head. "No, not yet."

"I see." Itachi nodded and silently debated if he wanted embark further into enemy territory. "You know, Sasuke, you don't have to visit me if you're busy. I'll understand."

"Don't worry Itachi, I can make time for my sick brother. It's no big deal."

Itachi drew his eyebrows together in concern, much like their mother always had when she sensed that there was more to a story that what her sons told her. "And I appreciate it, Sasuke, I really do," he started to say when Sasuke sent him a disinterested glare. "But you have two jobs now. You can't have much free time between your shifts and I don't want you to be taking less hours or rushing to get from place to place because you're spending all your time here with me."

"Don't worry; I'm not rushing from place to place and I already declined a third job offer."

"I'm sorry, you did _what_?" Itachi asked.

"Calm down. It was just another part time position working at a video game store. Nothing important."

Itachi breathed a sigh of relief but did not feel much better after doing so. "I'm not so sure. If you were searching for a third part-time job, then you must be struggling financially to make ends meet." He sighed. "Sasuke, I don't want to be the reason why you get kicked out of your apartment because you couldn't pay the rent on time."

"It's fine, Itachi." Sasuke reiterated. "I applied for that job when I was looking for a second job and they just now got back to me. I'm doing fine with the jobs that I have, but a third would've given me more money to spend every now and then."

"You should've taken it." Itachi said in a tone just above a whisper.

"I was going to until I found out that you were in the hospital. That's why I declined."

"Sasuke—"

"In case you've forgotten, I'm the only close family that you have left. If I had accepted a third part time job, I wouldn't have _any_ time to visit you, period."

"You can always call, Sasuke, I don't mind, I just don't want you to feel obligated to visit me when you have more pressing priorities to tend to."

Sasuke shook his head while looking skyward. "First of all, your health is my number one priority right now. Second, I don't visit you because I feel 'obligated' to do so; I visit you because I _want_ to." He said. "And I was thinking about moving back in with you."

"Sasuke, there isn't much you can do for me while I'm in here. Visiting and calling is more than enough to help me through this. You don't have to do something so drastic right now."

"I've given it a lot of thought already, Itachi. If I moved back in with you, I could still work at the athletic store _and_ the sports bar and visit you without burning through as much gas as I already do."

"You don't have to do that for me, Sasuke." Itachi said. "You've wanted your own place for months and now you've finally got it. There's no need for you to move back home just to visit me in the hospital more often."

Sasuke turned in his chair so that he was facing Itachi directly and said "I'm not sure if you know this or not, but you have _cancer_. Anything could happen at any time and if something were to happen to you, I'd like to be at your side ASAP."

Itachi's eyes darted back and forth, examining Sasuke's facial features for any cracks in this new resolve, something that Itachi could say to dissuade his younger sibling, but he found none. With a soft sigh, he closed his eyes and rested his head back against his pillow. "Are you sure that this is what you want to do?"

Sasuke nodded. "I'm sure."

"What if I go into remission within the next month? What will you do then?"

"We won't know that."

Itachi lifted his head to directly look Sasuke in the eyes. "Let's pretend that I will. You will have forfeited the apartment you spent months searching for to move home for a month."

"I'm aware."

"You could always stay at the apartment for a month to see how my treatment goes before you decide. There's no rush."

"I don't want to miss a rent payment because I'm too busy worrying about your health."

Itachi regarded him quizzically. "I'm the one with cancer, not you. So you only need to be concerned with yourself."

"Yeah, not gonna happen. Sorry." He shrugged.

Itachi smiled slightly before regaining a serious tone of voice. "Cancer can come back you know. Remission doesn't always last."

"I know that, Itachi."

"What will you do then?

Sasuke sighed in exasperation. "Honestly, I'd rather deal with the here and now. And besides, living at home won't be the end of the world."

_Did you think that I was going to live with you forever, Itachi?_ Sasuke had snapped at him almost two months ago at the cemetery when they were visiting their mother for her birthday. And here he was now, admitting that living at home for a little while longer wouldn't be so bad.

Itachi couldn't help but smile. But a part of him couldn't believe what he was hearing and didn't want to push Sasuke into a decision that he would later regret without making sure that this was something that _Sasuke _wanted. "And you're absolutely certain—"

"For the millionth time Itachi, yes I'm certain! I've been thinking about this for a while now! Don't you think I've thought of every implication? I went to law school for God's sake! I know how to pick apart every little detail!"

"I just wanted to make sure." Itachi said in his defense. "If that's what you want, then I'm okay with it. However, I hope you understand that you'll be sleeping in my room as Kisame is currently occupying your old room."

"Oh, I'm aware." Sasuke muttered. When Itachi continued to stare at him, he added "And don't worry, I'll try to be civil towards the guy. Even though he's the one who punched _me_."

"Thank you." Itachi smiled and opened his arms wide for a hug.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but did not refuse the gesture, leaning into his brother to return the hug. When they parted, Sasuke glanced at his fingers, which had long black locks of hair tangled up in between them. "Itachi…?"

**Ooh...what's going on now? Hm~ (the anticipation!)**

**I wasn't really planning on writing a chapter today but the inspiration I needed to do so came and I worked all day to be able to post this tonight! (Literally, I started it this morning, and revised it this afternoon, and finished it earlier this evening!) Whew! Such hard work!**

***cheers***

**Until next time~**

**Sasori33-001**

**PS: This chapter takes place on Friday, July 20th. Sasuke's birthday is on Monday, July 23rd. Any suggestions what Itachi should get him for a birthday present? (I may or may not include it or I may just come up with my own idea but suggestions are welcomed! Who knows? I might pick one of them!)**

**PSS: I doubt Sasuke's birthday will take place during the next chapter :(**

**PSSS: I THINK the next chapter is set to be a Kisame chapter with a dash of Sasuke~ *don't quote me on that***


	35. Chapter 35

**Oh my God guys! This chapter is so fucking juicy! AHHHHHH (and no, The Secret Sal, there will be no kissing, no gay sex, no marriage proposals, and no ninja strippers or homosexuality for that matter! #sorrynotsorry!)**

**Anyways, without further ado, I hope you all enjoy! ;)**

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_"__Why would you do that for me? You barely know me."_

_"__You're right. I don't know you very well. But in the small amount of time that I have known you, you've proven to me that you are somebody who can be trusted. You strike me as a man who's led a very hard life who deserves a break for once and I'm willing to give you one."_

_"__But why, Itachi? Why would you do that for somebody like me? I tri—" I tried to kill myself in your kitchen yesterday afternoon, he caught himself from saying. "I don't deserve such kindness."_

_"__I insist."_

_Kisame clenched his fists in his lap. "But why me?"_

_"__Because I trust you."_

For the past two days, Kisame couldn't stop thinking about those four words _"because I trust you." _Was Itachi even in his right mindset when he said those words? How was Kisame supposed to know if he wasn't hopped up on some crazy cancer drug or something? Because the man Kisame had been living with for the past month and a half didn't come off as trusting easily. Hell, the man Kisame knew didn't warm up to people easily. Sure, Kisame didn't know Itachi very well much less who he talked to outside of the apartment _if_ he talked to anyone outside of his apartment. He probably didn't. But anyways, what was so special about Kisame to convince this man to put his trust in him? Kisame wasn't even sure that he could bring himself to trust somebody who had nearly tried to kill themselves a few days prior when their roommate was getting treated for cancer.

And that was another thing. Itachi was being treated for _cancer_. There was a legitimate chance that this man could succumb to a disease that claimed thousands across the country each year and he wasn't giving up on life just yet. How could he? He had a stable, well-paying job, a fancy apartment that was close to everything, and a younger brother that was just starting out in the world to watch over. And what about Kisame? Three days ago, Kisame thought that he had run out of options. That he'd be better off underground like Suikazan. He thought he'd be living on the streets just like he did for those few months way back when.

And it was all thanks to Itachi's goodwill.

It had to be drug-induced, Kisame decided. There was no other logical explanation for this man's sudden kindness. Once he got better, he'd come to his senses; realize that Kisame wasn't doing nearly enough to pull his weight and that he was nothing more than a burden on him and toss him out onto the streets. "Why did I ever give this good for nothing lazy bum another chance?" Itachi would say. "And what was I thinking? Offering him to live with me rent-free? What's the purpose in that?"

And like so many times before, Kisame would have the rug ripped right out from under him.

A sudden knocking at the door immediately drew him out of his thoughts. Although he had picked up a few extra shifts here and there to avoid another run-in with Itachi's younger brother, he couldn't work for twenty-four hours on end without sleep and thus needed to return back to the apartment every so often. To Kisame's knowledge, Sasuke worked a few jobs as well and occasionally visited his older brother in the hospital which limited the amount of interaction he had with Kisame, but it didn't eliminate it entirely. It only _limited_ it.

His first reaction was to stay quiet. Play dead. If he didn't make a sound, then Sasuke would assume that he was asleep or something. That was logical, right?

"Do you have a minute? I want to talk to you about something." Sasuke asked.

If he stayed quiet long enough, Sasuke would give up and walk away.

"Hey." He said a little more loudly, rapping on the door once more. "I know you're in there; I can hear the TV."

_Dammit._ That didn't mean that Kisame hadn't fallen asleep while watching TV. Or better yet, jumped out the window.

"Itachi wants to know how you're doing." He said.

Again, if Kisame didn't answer, Sasuke could assume that he was in a deep sleep. Or dead. In that case, what was stopping him from calling Itachi to alert him of such a suspicion? Or worse, the police? "I'm doing fine." He replied loudly enough so that Sasuke could hear him.

"I don't know that."

"Take my word for it." Kisame insisted.

"Maybe I would if you hadn't lied to me the other day about why there were so many pills in your hand."

_Dammit!_

"You've got three minutes to show yourself." Sasuke's voice echoed through the closed door.

"And if I don't?"

"Then I'm calling the police."

With a sigh of defeat, Kisame pushed himself off the bed and slowly opened the door, making certain to keep his face behind it in case Sasuke decided to punch him in an act of vengeance. "See? You can tell Itachi that I'm alive and conscious enough to respond to all of your questions."

Sasuke raised a skeptical brow. "Or you could have recently downed some over-the-counter medications without my knowledge and the side effects haven't made themselves present yet." He said and tilted his head towards the living room. "Care to chat over a cold drink?" He asked.

Slowly, Kisame opened the door and stepped into the fluorescent lighting of the main room. "What choice do I have? If I don't, you'll call the cops on me, won't you?" He muttered and resigned to his fate.

-8-8-8-

"Care for a beer?" Sasuke asked once they were comfortably seated in front of an episode of CSI Miami.

Kisame shook his head. "No thank you."

"It's okay. They're not Itachi's if that's what you're thinking so you're not going to get in trouble." Sasuke said. "I bought them on my way home from work today."

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Kisame asked. "Nice" wasn't quite the right word to describe the younger brother's actions at the moment but Kisame couldn't think of anything better to say.

Sasuke sat down on the couch next to Kisame with a sigh. "Well, it looks like I'm going to be moving back in since Itachi's in the hospital so I might as well get to know my new roommate."

"You're moving back in?" Kisame couldn't help but ask. So much for wearing only his boxers anymore…

Sasuke nodded. "I'd rather be close to Itachi while he's getting treated. It's not worth my time and gas money to drive back and forth to my jobs and the hospital. Itachi's apartment is central to both whereas mine is going out of my way." He explained. "Plus, I've been spending a lot of my time back here anyways, so I figured, why not move back in?"

Kisame nodded in agreement but didn't like the idea any more. "What do you do for a living?" He'd always wanted to know the answer to that question. If he was willing to call the police, he couldn't have been one himself. But for a twenty-something year old, he was awfully perceptive. Then again, so was Itachi. Kisame was willing to bet that this kid was a detective or something along the lines of that.

"I'm a certified criminal defense lawyer, but I'm working at an athletic store and pub part-time until I can find a hiring law firm." He answered and took a drink of his beer.

A lawyer. No wonder Kisame didn't fully trust this kid. In his book, lawyers were just as shady as police officers. They teach you in school that they're there to help, but Kisame had heard stories of those who have abused their power or used underhanded methods to achieve their desired outcome. "I would've never guessed." In a sense, lawyer wasn't one of the professions that crossed Kisame's mind when he thought about Itachi's kid brother. But it fit. "Why'd you choose that career path?"

Sasuke sighed and crossed his ankle at the knee. "For the longest time, I wanted to follow in my father's footsteps and become a police lieutenant."

_Equally shady_.

"But after our mother died, I changed my mind." He continued.

_"__My mother was forty-two when she died in a car accident almost ten years ago, and my father died of a heart attack at the age of fifty, six years ago."_ Kisame remembered Itachi saying to him almost a week ago. "Why? What happened?"

Sasuke kept his gaze in line with the car chase currently on the TV and said "I was fifteen years old when our mom died in a car accident. There was a freak snow storm and she couldn't see. And apparently, neither could the truck driver that blew through the intersection where she was driving through." He said and cast his gaze downwards at the beer in his hand. "After she died, her side of the family flew in from Japan and started a legal battle with our father to fight for a share of her inheritance even though she cut ties with them when she married our father." Sasuke said. "Her family never really approved of our dad because he wasn't the Japanese businessman that they envisioned for their daughter so I guess you could say that they cut ties with her. But anyways, they started a legal battle with our dad for a share of her inheritance." He sighed. "And it wasn't pretty. For one, half of her family didn't speak proper English and our dad only spoke a little Japanese so Itachi had act as the pipeline between us."

"How old was he?" Kisame asked.

"He was twenty at the time. He had to skip two of his final exams to sort things out between our dad and mom's relatives."

"Couldn't you have hired a translator or something to communicate for you?"

Sasuke shook his head. "We would've had to hire one twenty-four seven because they would make phone calls to our house at all hours of the day. They didn't care. Sometimes it would be an English speaking relative or a Japanese speaking relative. At first, our father would answer the phone and if it was an English speaking relative, they would sometimes switch back and forth from English to Japanese just to throw him off. Eventually, Itachi began answering all of their calls and that's when they took it to court. They realized that they couldn't get behind Itachi who spoke fluent Japanese so they couldn't pull any dirty tricks so they decided to start a court battle over it."

"What happened then?"

"We won of course, because mom was smart enough to write a will in case something happened to her. If you have a legal will dividing your assets after you die, there isn't much anyone can do about it. Our mom's relatives tried to fight it of course, saying that she wasn't in the right mind set because she was with an American but their arguments fell upon deaf ears." Sasuke explained and clutched the neck of his beer with such force that his knuckles turned white. "And that's when I decided to learn Japanese and become a lawyer; so that I call people out on their bullshit." He spoke, his words like acid.

"Why didn't Itachi become a lawyer? I'd think that an experience like that would—"

"He never wanted to deal with anything like that ever again. You probably don't know this about him, but Itachi _hates_ conflict. He'll do anything he can to resolve things peacefully and with as little difficulty as possible. And it's all because of what happened with our mom's relatives after she died. That, and Itachi never wanted to become a lawyer in the first place. He always thought that arguing was a waste of time." Sasuke said and muttered "Even though he was captain of the speech and debate team during high school and all they did was argue about pointless topics like animal rights and shit."

Suddenly, Kisame felt as though he understood the Uchiha siblings. He understood why Itachi gave him a second chance to prove that he was capable of contributing to the monthly rent instead of turning him away upon their first meeting. And he felt as though he was starting to understand the differences between the two brothers – why one could be so calm and collected whereas the other was more volatile and argumentative. When their mother died, Itachi was a mature adult (though Kisame like to think that Itachi was a mature adult from the time he entered this world), and capable of seeing things from other's point of view whereas Sasuke was young and naïve and probably had no idea what was going on at the time (that, and he couldn't speak Japanese, Kisame assumed).

Although it was nice to know that these seemingly emotionless robots known as Uchihas were ordinary human beings, something that Sasuke mentioned caught Kisame's interest. "What were you saying about wills earlier?"

Sasuke blinked, seemingly caught off guard by the question. "What do you mean?"

"Sorry to change the subject," Kisame apologized, "but you said something about how if a person has a will, they've already said who gets what, right?"

Sasuke shrugged. "That's one way to describe it, but yes. If the deceased has collaborated with a lawyer and drawn up a formal will dividing their assets after they die, then their wishes are final with the exceptions of child custody and a few other things. Why do you ask?"

Kisame bit the inside of his cheek. Did he really want to take a chance and make a fool out of himself? Then again, he had already punched Sasuke while wearing only his boxers, so he didn't have much else to loose. "What happens to somebody's house when they die?"

Sasuke took a moment to consider this. "If they've left their estate to a specific person, then their estate will go to that person."

"And if they don't?"

"Then the estate will become property of the government. Why?"

"Well I was wondering…" Kisame started and reached over to where Sasuke had set a bottle of beer on the coffee table in case Kisame changed his mind. And in order to tell this story, Kisame knew he'd need it.

* * *

**Kisame and Sasuke are getting along! Albeit forcibly! And possibly with some ulterior motives!**

**Fun Fact: I wasn't planning to include this backstory (which I've had planned for quite some time, in this chapter, but it just felt right so I did it~**

**For those of you who are keeping track, this chapter takes place on Saturday, July 21st so it's not Sasuke's birthday yet :( Though I think I have decided that Itachi is going to get him an expensive fountain pen for the big 2-5~**

******To the Guest who reviewed on November 13th: Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you THANK YOU for the review (yes, I am usually this peppy with users who review) my one request is that you leave a name (real or fake, I don't care) next time so that I can differentiate you from any guests who review in the future!**

******To The Secret Sal: Although the shower is a good place to find inspiration for fics, I found the inspiration to write this chapter while putting cloths away (no particular reason why) ;)**

**Until next time~**

**Sasori33-001**

**PS: I think the next chapter will be an Itachi chapter, I haven't decided yet...**


	36. Chapter 36

**So! Long time no see huh? Nah, I don't think it's been that long! But any who, for those of you who actually check out my story statuses on my profile (today) and saw that I wasn't planning to update this until January, well, I lied! Unintentionally of course, I really did mean to update this in January because I was working on other things. Those other things didn't work out, I got stressed out, started thinking about this story again and cranked out a chapter by the end of the day!**

**Enjoy!**

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When Kisame received a call from Itachi from the hospital the day before, he assumed the worst. Was Itachi kicking him out again? Was he revoking his decision to let Kisame stay with him rent-free on the premise that he take classes in mechanical engineering? Had he done something wrong again that he didn't even know of? Had Sasuke gotten in touch with Itachi and told him that he suspected that Kisame was trying to overdose again when he _proved_ to Sasuke that he wasn't? Was Itachi's health failing? Was Itachi dying?

All in that order.

He never knew what to expect from either Uchiha sibling. Itachi, on one hand, seemed to surprise him with good news spawned from the depths of his heart every other week whereas Sasuke on the other hand…well…he was bipolar as far as Kisame was concerned. Itachi was the same way, but he had an excuse: he was sick. To his knowledge, Sasuke wasn't physically sick, just mentally sick.

So when Itachi called asking him to do him a favor, Kisame willingly complied. Who knew what Itachi wanted on a Sunday afternoon, and from _Kisame_ of all people.

"Is Sasuke around?" He asked.

He didn't need Kisame after all. Sasuke was the one he wanted to speak to. "Not that I know of. I think he went to work." Kisame said and walked across the living room when Itachi cut him off.

"Good. I have a favor I need to ask of you."

"What do you need?" Kisame had asked, all while trying to hide the hesitation in his voice.

"In the pantry on the top shelf is a round Christmas tin." He said.

_Christmas? But it's the middle of July, _Kisame thought. Maybe Itachi was one of those people who liked to celebrate Christmas in July. "Okay…"

"Behind it is a small, narrow box." Itachi instructed.

Kisame moved his cell phone from his right hand to his left and reached up to grab the small tin Itachi described and gently placed it on the counter. Behind where the tin had been rested a small, rectangular box the size of a fork with a small, red bow attached on top.

"Were you able to find it?" Itachi asked on the other end of the line.

"Yeah." Kisame answered, turning the box around in his hand, trying to decipher the contents. "What is it?"

"Don't open it. It's a present for Sasuke. His birthday's tomorrow."

The corners of Kisame's mouth turned upwards to form a small smile. "That's nice." So the brothers really did love each other. Well, Itachi loved Sasuke, that was for certain. "Are you going to give it to him?" He asked before his mind could catch up with his mouth.

Itachi sighed. "I was going to ask you for another favor, actually."

And that's how Kisame found himself driving to the hospital the next day with Sasuke's present sitting in the passenger seat of one of Suikazan's automobiles that were still sitting untouched outside of the garage. A few days ago, Kisame wouldn't have taken his chances as it had almost been a month since Suikazan's death but after his conversation with Sasuke, Kisame's worries were starting to fade away. It was only a matter of time before all, if not most, of this could be his.

"Thank you for bringing this on such short notice." Itachi said when Kisame entered the room.

Kisame smiled and uttered a quiet "not a problem" as he handed Itachi the little box. "What'd you get him?"

"A fountain pen with his name engraved on it." He opened the box to reveal a shiny red pen with "_Sasuke Uchiha_" engraved in fancy gold lettering.

"It's really nice." _And probably _really_ expensive. _"How old will he be?"

"Twenty-five." Itachi answered, closing the box and setting it on his bedside. "Thanks again for bringing it today."

"It wasn't a problem. So his birthday's _today_?" Kisame asked.

Itachi nodded. "He won't stop by until after he finishes his shift at the sporting goods store this afternoon." He said. There was a moment of silence between them, neither knowing what to say next. "How is everything?"

"Good, good." Kisame said, walking around the edge of the bed to take a seat. He didn't have to drop off Suikazan's car for another twenty minutes or so and would spend the rest of the evening on his feet so why not take it easy for a few?

"That's good." Itachi sighed, in relief or out of fatigue, Kisame couldn't tell. "I know you didn't sign up to live with my younger brother, but he was adamant about moving back in during the course of my treatment."

"He's a good brother. Very mature."

Itachi released a short laugh and shook his head. "I don't know. Just a few months ago he and I were arguing about his decision to move out on his own and now he's demanding to move back in. I wish I could figure out why the change in heart all of a sudden."

Although Kisame had known Itachi for over a month, the two hadn't shared many personal conversations. Kisame told Itachi about _his_ childhood and he learned a few details about Itachi through Sasuke the other night, but Itachi didn't often discuss his _feelings_ with Kisame. Thus, Kisame didn't know if he was overstepping his boundaries or not by pointing out the obvious to him. "Well you have cancer which is a pretty serious disease." He said. "If I had an older brother who was in the hospital with cancer, I'd move closer to home to be by his side too."

"But Sasuke doesn't live more than an hour away."

"But if something happens to you, don't you think he'd want to be by your side as soon as possible?" Kisame argued.

"I suppose so." Itachi relented and looked up to meet Kisame's gaze. "How are things going between you two?"

Kisame nodded. "Oh yeah, things are going smoothly. In fact, just the other night he was helping me sort out a legal issue I had questions about."

"A legal issue?"

"Hm-hm. I moved out of Suikazan's place when he died because I didn't know what would happen to it. I was worried that the police or some government employee would come by to sell the house and arrest me for squatting even though I'd lived with Suikazan on and off for a little over twenty years or so." He explained.

Itachi bit his lip. "Did you specifically _ask_ him to help you with this? Or did he volunteer?"

"I asked him." Kisame answered. "Why?"

Itachi shook his head. "It's nothing. I just didn't think that the two of you interacted with each other much."

"We don't usually. But we sat down over a few beers the other night while watching a crime scene investigation show and started talking and the next thing you know we were talking about Suikazan's will and inheritance all sorts of things." He told Itachi who looked at him as though he were dealing drugs on the street. "Is something wrong with that?" Kisame asked.

Again, Itachi dismissed it as nothing. Perhaps the topic of wills and inheritance were sensitive topics for Itachi, especially after that whole ordeal with his mother's side of the family when he was younger. Kisame could only imagine what it was like for him when his father died even though Sasuke hadn't brought it up the other day.

"It's not that I don't like living with you, I do. It's a really nice place, I just…" His voice trailed off as he didn't really know what he wanted to say. _I just want to live above the garage again? The auto shop is basically my home? I don't want to burden you while you're in the hospital getting treatment for your illness? _

"I understand." Itachi said without waiting for Kisame's explanation.

"Are you sure?"

Itachi closed his eyes. "Yes."

Not knowing what else to say, Kisame rose to his feet. "Well, I should probably get going. Gotta return the car and get ready for work." He said.

"Thanks again for dropping this off for me." Itachi replied.

Kisame smiled and raised his hand to wave good-bye to his roommate. "Take care, Itachi."

"Thanks."

"And say happy birthday to your kid brother for me!"

"I will."

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**1\. It's Sasuke's b-day! Yay! And let the fun continue into the next chapter which will be an Itachi chapter that will take place later that day when Sasuke shows up! Double yay!**

**2\. Goodness gracious it was difficult showing the gears in Itachi's head turning in a KisamePOV chapter! But no worries! We'll see Itachi's side of things soon enough!**

******To The Secret Sal: I bet you LOVED Kisame's side comments about Sasuke's mental health in this chapter, didn't you honey? And wow, it took me a solid 15 days to continue (remember how you were mad that I ended it last time? lol!) Hopefully you didn't cry much over the long wait~ ;P**

******To AbsoluteAnarchy: Itachi shares your suspicion so you're not the only one! ;)**

**Until next time!**

**~Sasori33-001**


	37. Chapter 37

**Hi guys~ quick update I know! (I'm just as surprised as you are! (not really)) But it's only fair that I finish out Sasuke's birthday before I go on vacation, right? I thought so too.**

**I hope you enjoy!**

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On a typical day, Itachi slept in until ten thirty or eleven in the morning which was slowly becoming normal for him ever since he fell ill with leukemia. He would then start his day off by eating a light lunch because the rumors he'd heard in passing were true – hospital food was _not_ very appetizing, especially when one was expected to eat it every day, three times a day, of the duration of their month long stay. If he thought that chemotherapy induced nausea was bad, then the next three weeks of his new diet, comprised entirely of hospital food, would be pure hell.

Between lunch and dinner, Itachi did one of two things: slept or tried to concoct new ways to keep himself entertained. Unlike some of the other bedridden patients admitted to the hospital, Itachi was (mostly) alert enough to carry out his usual hobbies such as reading the paper or reading a courtroom drama, or reading up on people whose cancer went into remission and were able to go back to living life the way that they had before they were diagnosed. Every so often, Itachi was granted a brief visit by Kisame or Sasuke which always brought a smile to Itachi's face because it provided him with conversation that didn't revolve around cell counts, hemoglobin, transfusions, bone marrow or bone marrow transplants.

Today, however, was different.

Today, Itachi not only had the pleasure of receiving a visit from Kisame who was able to drop off Sasuke's birthday present before going to work this afternoon, but by Sasuke as well who was coming to spend his birthday with his older brother after getting off from his shift at the restaurant.

"Happy birthday, Sasuke." Itachi smiled when Sasuke entered the room.

"Thanks, Itachi." He replied and leaned over to place something on the ground.

Itachi attempted to sit up a little straight to see what it was Sasuke had brought with him when Sasuke approached him with open arms and embraced him in a gentle hug. When they parted, Itachi reached over to the bedside table where he'd placed the little box that held Sasuke's present and extended his arm to hand it to him.

"When did you have time to—"

Itachi shrugged. "Before I was admitted. I knew that I was going to be here for your birthday so I went shopping ahead of time. I hope you like it."

He watched closely as Sasuke pulled the lid of the box up to reveal the fountain pen inside. "Thanks, Itachi." Sasuke said, closing the box.

"You're welcome." Itachi smiled. Sasuke stood up just then, holding the box in hand, and walked around the perimeter of the hospital bed. He was wearing a plaid button down shirt with a black graphic tee from one of those dimly lit Goth stores that sold albums, shirts, piercings, anime and popular Disney merchandise and skinny jeans (which Itachi suspected were bought from the same dimly lit store). His right wrist was bare, Itachi noticed, while his left adorned a bracelet made of black parachute cables. "You're not wearing the watch I bought you as a graduation present."

Sasuke, who was kneeling down on the floor so that only the jagged peaks of his hair could be seen from above the bed, answered "It's at my apartment."

Although Sasuke was spending most, if not, all of his time at Itachi's apartment, he still hadn't moved out of his own apartment yet. Itachi guessed that he was waiting to see how Itachi's first round of chemotherapy went before he made any rash decisions. And Itachi was proud of him for that. "Kisame stopped by this morning." Itachi said by way of making conversation. "It seems to me that the two of you have been tolerating each other's presence lately?"

"You could say that." Sasuke murmured and rose to a stand.

The moment Itachi saw the razor in his brother's hands, his eyes widened. In that instant, all of the energy seemed to drain from his body as though somebody had punched him in the gut, effectively knocking the wind out of him.

"You okay, Itachi? You look pale."

Itachi couldn't speak. Not then, at least. All of the words he might have said in response to Sasuke's simple question were rooted in his heart which was having enough trouble beating as it was. Instead, he nodded, acutely aware of the rock solid lump that had formed in the back of his throat as he did so.

"You agreed that it was better to rip the Band-Aid off instead of waking up bald the next morning." Sasuke said, bending over again. "And it's okay, I brought a hat with me for when it's all said and done."

Rip. Bald. Said and done. Those were the only five words Itachi's brain had been able to process and each evoked a different, yet equally horrifying message to his mind. Instead of denying or confirming Sasuke's claim, Itachi's mind was filled with images of Sasuke ripping his hair out of his head by the fistfuls, of feeling the smooth exterior of his cranium like an old man standing before a mirror, reminiscing his lost youth, and finally, a granite stone that read _"ITACHI UCHIHA; JUNE 9TH, 1985 – JULY 23RD, 2015; BELOVED BROTHER, R.I.P"_

Deep down inside, Itachi knew that each of those images were just exaggerations of the things that Sasuke had said or maybe they didn't have anything to do with what Sasuke had said at all. How would Itachi know? He was more focused on keeping his lunch down from a couple of hours ago than the things that Sasuke was saying.

"Itachi?" Sasuke asked again.

"Justdoitalready." The words left his mouth as quickly as a sudden gust of air on a cold November day and as loudly as a brittle brown leaf being carried along with it.

"What?"

"Just." _Breathe._ "Do." _Breathe._ "It." _Breathe._ "Already."

"Are you sure?"

Itachi nodded, fully aware that his terror was probably causing his hair to fall out even faster than before. _"Name of the deceased: Itachi Uchiha. Sex: Male Race: Other. Date of death: July 23__rd__, 2015. Cause of death: Heart failure."_ His death certificate would say.

-8-8-8-

It had taken him a full hour to recover from the near panic attack he was having. And through it all, Sasuke had sat by his side, rubbing small circles into his back which caused more of his hair to fall out and become entangled in between his brother's fingers. It was then that Itachi decided that he had had enough. "I'm ready now." He announced.

"Are you sure?" Sasuke asked, skepticism lacing his voice like syrup drizzled onto the hot surface of a buttermilk pancake.

Itachi nodded. "Yes." He said evenly, a feat he wasn't able to manage less than thirty minutes ago. "I'm tired of hiding the fact that my hair is falling out and I'm tired of waking up to clumps of it on my pillow case. I'd rather cut it all off now and be done with it instead of waiting for it all to be gone."

Sasuke chuckled and rose to his feet. "It'll be weird seeing you without all of your hair."

Itachi shot him a murderous glare.

"Sorry." He apologized and grabbed the razor from where he'd placed it at the edge of the bed.

Itachi took a deep breath and tried to think of something to talk about that would take his mind off of what Sasuke was about to do to him. What was it that he wanted to talk to Sasuke about today? Something important… "It sorta strikes me as strange that you and Kisame are getting along so well lately."

"Why?" Sasuke asked. "I know how to act towards people I don't necessarily like."

_People I don't necessarily like._ Those were the key words. "If you don't like him, then why—" Itachi began to say when Sasuke flipped on the razor, halting him mid-sentence. He took a deep breath once again to still his unsettled nerves when Sasuke pulled the razor blade away.

"Then why what?" He asked.

Beside him, the razor blades clicked and whirred, disrupting Itachi's usually articulate train of thought. When it became clear that Sasuke wasn't going to make a move until Itachi did, he said "Kisame mentioned that he had legal matters that you were helping him resolve."

Again, he could hear the razor gravitating closer and closer to his skull like the day of a death sentence coming closer and closer. "How do you want me to do this?" Sasuke asked.

His words caused Itachi to jump at least half a foot. "I don't care, Sasuke do whatever you need to do!" He shouted, screwing his eyes shut. _Just get it over with already._

"Well tell me what you want me to do to make this go more smoothly! Do you want me to start from the top and shave it all off or do you want me to cut chunks of it out so you get used to seeing it get shorter and shorter until there's nothing left to shave?"

Itachi didn't understand a word that was coming out of Sasuke's mouth and he didn't want to. "Just…do whatever you think is best. I just want this to be done and over with." Itachi whispered.

Sasuke apparently heard him and released a low grunt. "Whatever." He said and grabbed a fist full of Itachi's hair in his left hand as if he were getting ready to tie it back into its usual ponytail. And yet again, Itachi could hear the buzz of the razor blades sawing back and forth as Sasuke's hand steadily approached the base of his neck until it had made contact with his weakened follicles. And one by one, Itachi could feel the strands breaking apart. There would be a moment of tension and then release before the cycle repeated itself again.

By the time it was done, Itachi was certain that his heart was racing at 140bpm and Sasuke wasn't even done yet.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke asked, flipping off the razor.

Itachi pressed his lips together and nodded. _I'm okay. It's just hair. I can do this._

"Do you want to see it?" Sasuke asked.

Itachi knew that he was referring to the ponytail that no longer relaxed between his shoulder blades, now gripped in the Sasuke's iron clutch, and shook his head.

"Okay." He said.

Itachi could imagine him opening his hands to release the anthracite strands, once united, onto the hospital tile in a slow downpour as dark as the nighttime sky.

"Do you want to see what you look like without your ponytail?" Sasuke asked.

Once again, Itachi shook his head, noting the way the ends of his hair licked and tickled the base of his neck and shook his head. He imagined he looked like his college macroeconomics professor at that moment and wanted to spare himself the humiliation of such a sight. It wasn't that his macro professor wasn't attractive; Itachi just felt as though her hair style wouldn't suit him as nicely as it did her.

"Are you ready for me to continue or do you want to take a break?"

"Continue." Itachi ordered.

Having your head shaved created a slew of conflicted feelings. On one hand, it like having someone thread their fingers through your hair, starting at the nape of your neck and running them all the way up to your scalp until you couldn't go any further. In a way, it reminded him of how his mother would play with his hair when he was sick and how the tiny hairs on his forearms would stand on end when her neatly manicured nails gently brushed against his skull. On the other hand, it also felt like running your hand along the surface of a velvet pillow – the wrong way. Only Itachi's head was the pillow, and the razor was the hand stroking the surface.

It was both comforting, and discomforting at the same time.

"So what were you saying about your roommate's legal issues again?" Sasuke asked again, trying to redirect the conversation they were having before he made the first cut. "I'm helping him because I went to law school and know a thing or two about legal matters, Itachi."

Again, Sasuke wouldn't make a move until Itachi spoke first. "But your arear area of expertise is in family law not probate law, Sasuke. You primarily deal with divorce cases, not wills, estates and inheritance which is Kisame's—" Itachi was about to say "issue" when Sasuke placed the razor at the base of his neck and pushed it up the back of his skull, causing a patch of hair to skitter down his back with a few strands falling into his shirt and tickling his back.

"Stop twitching." Sasuke muttered. "If they have to reattach a piece of your ear lobe, cancer will be the _least_ of your problems." He said. "And I'm not overseeing him myself. I was planning to contact one of my old mentors from college."

Itachi felt stupid. Half of his skull was patted down by his hair while the other half was completely barren. Exposed. Nude. "While I appreciate that you're taking the time out to help Kisame, I have to admit that I'm a bit surprised." Itachi said. "I know that you want to get your feet wet in paralegal matters but I don't think you would've agreed to help him a week ago."

"That's because," Sasuke said, repositioning the razor at the base of his brother's neck once more, "he punched me in the eye, or have you forgotten?"

The more Sasuke shaved off, the more comfortable Itachi felt. The first cut, after all, was the hardest to get through. The rest was just mildly unsettling. "I haven't forgotten, it's just that you've gotten over it rather quickly. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm surprised, that's all."

"I'm not a kid anymore, Itachi, I'm an adult. I don't have to like everyone I work with to want to help them out." He explained. "But if somebody punched _you_ in the face and then asked you to help them, wouldn't you decline too?"

_Well, yes, I would._ "That's not the point. You're not a probate lawyer and you don't like Kisame. You never hav—" He was about to say when his right bangs made their slow descent into Itachi's lap.

"Never what?" Sasuke prompted.

Itachi stared at the fallen fringe in his lap. It would be a very long time before he would be able to run his fingers through his hair again. "Just finish it."

"Are you sure?" Sasuke asked, positioning the razor on the left side of his head.

"Yes." Itachi choked out and screwed his eyes shut.

Even though his eyes were shut, he could feel the left side of his bangs – his outermost wall of defense from the world around him – slide down his forehead and brush against his cheek like rain drops.

With two more strokes, Itachi was effectively bald.

Beside him, Sasuke shut off the razor, unplugged it from the outlet he'd found on a nearby wall, and wrapped the cord into a tight coil.

Itachi exhaled, unable to tear his gaze away from the obsidian strands curled on top of the sky blue bedsheet draped on his thighs.

"What were you saying a minute ago, Itachi?" Sasuke asked, strolling past him to put the razor away.

Sasuke's bag, or whatever he brought with him to conceal his tiny instrument of shame and despair, was less than ten feet away. And although he hadn't walked very fast to cover the short distance, Itachi could feel the air caress his newly exposed skin, an area that had been shielded not even ten minutes ago. "I'm fine."

"What?"

"I'm fine." Itachi whispered to himself. He knew that Sasuke had asked him a question but he couldn't make out the words no matter how hard he tried. And he realized that he didn't actually care.

_Everything's fine._

I'll_ be fine._

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**Andddddd scene! Poor Itachi. That's all I have to say. Actually, I lied. I wanted to thank everyone who gave me suggestions for Sasuke's 25th birthday present. As I said might happen, I didn't actually _use_ any of them, but I'm grateful for your participation anyways~ (ice cream for everyone! Not really; the holidays got me broke!)**

******To Charada: It was _your_ review that made me sit down and crank this chapter out ASAP actually. I'm not sure why, but it was nice of you to leave a review telling me how much you loved my story so far and I dunno, it just inspired me~ ;) Thanx! (and please keep reviewing! It does my heart good and adds more years onto my life I think!)**

******To AbsoluteAnarchy: There goes all hope of your Itachi shampoo commercial hon :( sorry.**

******To Esparia: "So the little brother returns...and learns Itachi is losing his hair." ...only to return a few days later and shave it all off...**

**Until next time! (whenever that may be!)**

**~Sasori33-001**


	38. Chapter 38

**Author's Note: **You know who you are. And you told me that I published this on April _24th_ when I _knew_ that I published this on April 23rd you little shit. Oh well. It's all said and done now. Happy one year of knowing you and I hope you appreciate the lengths I went to in order to make it special.

**To the general public****:** If you're confused you have a right to be. I published this story about 1 year ago and I thought it'd be special to post a new chapter in order to both commemorate making it 1 year and still being invested in this (even though at times it seems like I've gone M.I.A) and more importantly, as a thank you to my very first reviewer (on this account), The Secret Sal and the unlikely friend I've made in him.

~This chapter is dedicated to you~

* * *

Motor oil, transmission fluid, antifreeze, washer fluid, brake fluid, and power steering fluid. Those were the types of liquids Kisame dealt with on a daily basis for the past twenty-two years. And sweat. There wasn't a day where he didn't wipe sweat from his brow when he was elbow deep in the hood of a car or catch a whiff of the stench of his pits when he was hauling two high performance all-season tires under each arm.

In his profession, Kisame met lots of people who had never even _heard_ of the term "anti-freeze." Liquids, when exposed to temperatures below thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit _freeze_. The same is true for the fluids in a car. Antifreeze makes sure that fluid doesn't freeze. To Kisame, the logic was simple.

But all around him, nurses and patients were walking down the hallways rolling little metal carts beside them with transparent IV bags dangling by a hook with words like mechlorethamine, chlorambucil, cyclophosphamide, and hexamethylmelamine.

How anyone could pronounce and remember what all of those things meant and did was beyond Kisame, who wouldn't question what the nurses were injecting into his arm if it meant that it would buy him more time to live.

He could only imagine what it would be like to be in Itachi's shoes right now. But he and Itachi were nowhere near the same. Itachi was a college graduate (who probably had a Master's degree or maybe even a doctorate for all Kisame knew) whereas Kisame was a high school drop-out. Itachi was a successful business man who made more than enough money to pay the bills while Kisame was working two part-time jobs and living with a stranger he barely knew just to stay off the streets.

Itachi probably knew what hexamethamelomime did. He probably read the bag out of boredom and understood everything it said as if it was the back of a nutrition facts label. Kisame didn't even understand the back of nutrition facts labels half the time which tells you how much he knew about chemotherapy drugs.

Education aside, Kisame felt bad for his roommate who was confined to a twin-sized hospital bed (which was probably hard and scratchy) reading the back of IV bags all day (if he wasn't spending all his time throwing up like he was the first week of his stay).

When Kisame reached the door of room 341, he curled his hand around the cool metal door handle and took a deep breath to calm his nerves before he entered because as Itachi's visitor, he should be the calm and collected one, right? Right. With his new resolve, he turned the knob and slowly pushed the door open.

Since the day Itachi was admitted to the hospital, his hospital room assignment had remained unchanged. Until this week apparently.

Inside sat a pale faced woman with a black knit hat on her head. She had dark, well defined eyebrows and eyes such a dark shade of brown that they appeared to be black.

"Sorry, I thought this was someone else's room." Kisame uttered and promptly turned on his heel to make a speedy escape. He'd have to flag down a nurse or something and let them know that the nameplate on the door was wrong to avoid any future mix-ups like this from happening again.

"Kisame?"

How did the cancer patient know his name? And then it hit him. He recognized those dark, well defined eyebrows, the same ones that had examined him so carefully the day they first met along with those dark brown eyes that seemed to go on forever when Kisame looked into them but also never gave him any clues as to what the other man was thinking. "Itachi? Is that you? What happened to your—" He began to say when Itachi screwed his eyes shut and tilted his head back as if waiting for Kisame to drop the last word like the final blow that would be his undoing.

"Hair."

"Huh?" Kisame asked and moved to grab a chair from against the wall.

"My hair." Itachi elaborated and opened his eyes to stare at Kisame. "You don't have to be afraid to say it."

Kisame nodded in understanding but didn't know what to say next in response. Setting the chair down next to Itachi's bedside, he decided to say the first thing that came to mind. "So what happened to it?"

Itachi cast his gaze downwards. "Sasuke shaved it all off the other day. He said it would be better to simply get it over with instead of waiting for it all to fall out on its own or worse, wake up completely bald."

Kisame nodded when it hit him. "Wait, that happens?"

Itachi nodded as well. "It can."

"Did he like his present?" Kisame asked, hoping to change the topic.

"Yeah." Itachi responded.

Kisame couldn't help but chuckle. "So you bought him an expensive fountain pen and the little shit shaved your head? That's pretty fucked up if you ask me." He joked.

At this, Itachi closed his eyes and smiled slightly. "That's what little brothers do, unfortunately. They return your affections in very unorthodox ways."

"Well I guess I'm not missing out then, huh?"

"He doesn't shave my head every time I do something nice for him. Sometimes he glares at me, other times he belittles me, but most of the time he raises his voice and tries to make me see his side of things." Itachi mused.

Kisame leaned back his chair and howled with laughter. "Well now I'm _really_ glad that I'm an only child!"

And to his surprise, Itachi let out a short chuckle too. "Does it look that bad?"

He was referring to his hair, or lack thereof, Kisame realized. "It's…different alright" He started and immediately cursed himself or his lack of tact. "I mean, it'll take some getting used to…but it doesn't look all that bad…"

Itachi didn't look very convinced. And Kisame didn't blame him in the slightest.

"Thanks." He murmured.

Kisame knew he was supposed to say something. Something that would make Itachi feel better about all of this. But what did you say in a situation like this? "Why do you ask?"

"No particular reason. I was curious since you didn't recognize me when you came in earlier."

He had to think fast. "It just caught me off guard is all. Monday you had hair, and three days later you don't!"

"Hm." Itachi hummed.

In that instant, Kisame sensed a change in Itachi's tone. Even though Itachi hadn't actually _said_ anything, there was a hint of sadness that Kisame was all too familiar with. "It's just hair."

"I know that, it's just…different. That's all." Itachi sighed. "I definitely feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders but it'll be strange looking at myself in the mirror from now on."

Kisame nodded. "That's understandable. But it was bound to fall out soon or later, anyways, right?"

Itachi nodded.

"And with or without it, you're still the same person you were on Monday. Your hair doesn't define you, your words and actions do."

"Yeah." Itachi agreed.

And out of the corner of his eye, Kisame saw the corners of Itachi's smile falter for a split second before stabilizing again. _Was he about to? No, he couldn't have been._ Kisame thought. But just to make sure, he tried to meet Itachi's downcast eyes.

And sure enough, they were glassy with tears.

* * *

**Not really sure how I feel about this chapter to be honest with you folks. I started it in March as a side project, and finished it today as a spur of the moment Sentimental Sunday type of deal for a close friend. I know it doesn't compare to the last chapter and I might revise it in May when I have more time and energy to put forth into good writing...or I might leave it be and pick up with chapter 39 in May when, like I said, I have more time and energy to put forth.**

**But I hope you enjoyed it anyways and know that I'm not dead - I'm just really, really busy!**

**Until next time~!**

**Sasori33-001**


	39. Chapter 39

**Author's Note:** Well hello! ...again. So I totally wasn't planning to update this anytime soon - not yesterday, not today - not until May at the earliest. But as I said in the last chapter I wanted to update to mark this story's one year anniversary and as a gift to someone very special to me. And I should've mentioned this at the end of the last chapter, but this is part 2 of 2 (the last chapter took place earlier in the day) and I couldn't bear to not finish what I started! (that and I have homework that I really don't feel like doing right now sooooooo~ yeah!) Hope you enjoy another Kisame chapter!

* * *

He had a purpose.

Kisame came with a purpose today. And bringing Itachi Uchiha to tears over his lack of hair was _not_ a part of Kisame's agenda.

"Do you know what hexomethomelomide is?" He found himself saying.

"Excuse me?" Itachi asked, blinking a few times to dispel any tears that might threaten to fall.

"Hexylmethmelomide. I don't think I'm pronouncing it right, but I was wondering if you knew what it was."

Itachi slowly shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I've never heard of that word before. Why?"

Kisame shrugged. "It's nothing really. I saw it written on an IV bag in the hallway and was wondering if you knew what it was." He supplied, feeling stupid now for asking. It did not, however, stop him from closely examining the IV bag hanging by Itachi's bedside for the word he was looking for.

Itachi stared at him at length before reclining back against the bed, the barest of smiles gracing his lips. "Sorry, but my specialty is in accounting, not biochemistry."

"Yeah, you're right, I should've figured that." He chuckled. "Are you starting to feel any better yet?"

"I'm happy to not be retching into a bowl three times a day." He answered. "But other than that, I don't feel much differently than when I was still living at home."

"I see."

And with that, both men had grown silent, Itachi staring into his lap and Kisame staring somewhere into the space beyond Itachi's bed.

"Kisame?"

"Yeah?"

Itachi rubbed at his left thumb nail which was growing rather long. "Why did you come here today?"

Kisame never noticed it before but if you only saw Itachi's hands, you would think that he was a woman, based on his finely manicured nails. When he looked up to find Itachi staring at him from out of the corner of his eye, he registered that he had been asked a question. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

Itachi sighed in exasperation. "While I appreciate the visits, I don't think you came here to inquire what various chemotherapy drugs do, am I right?"

_Unfortunately._ "Yeah." Kisame laughed. _I have a purpose._ But while he could remind himself of his purpose all day long, it didn't stop the fact that Itachi was waiting for an answer and Kisame's lips weren't moving. "I looked into those classes. For my auto mechanics certification."

Itachi raised his eyebrows in surprise. "What did you find?"

"Well," Kisame started, "it turns out I don't need to take any classes. I just gotta pass a certification test."

Itachi nodded in approval. "That's good. How much does it cost?"

_You never beat around the bush, do you, Itachi?_ "The registration fee is thirty-six dollars and the test fee is seventy-four."

"One hundred and ten altogether." Itachi whispered under his breath. "That's not bad. Where would you take it?"

"There's a location about twenty minutes away from here by car."

"That's not bad."

Kisame slowly nodded. "Yeah. Not bad at all."

"Is there a problem? You sound unsure."

_Of course he picked up on that. Of course._ "Don't worry about it. It's nothing."

"Is there something you're not telling me? Because if it's a matter of money, we can come up with a plan—"

Kisame shook his head. "No, it's not that." _Should I tell him?_

"Then what is it, Kisame?"

"It's just that…I hate taking tests." He admitted. "I've never been a good test taker. I flunked the written part of my driver's test three times before I got it right even though I knew how to drive"

Whether he was crunching numbers in his head again or thinking of a clever insult to hurl at him, Kisame didn't know. All he knew was that Itachi was thinking of what to say in response.

And after what felt like three minutes of silence, Itachi spoke. "While I don't know how the questions were worded when you took your driver's license exam, or how well you actually knew how to drive, I can tell you this: you've been a mechanic for over twenty years, correct?"

Kisame nodded. "Yeah.

"You've been taught everything you know from Suikazan, who must have had some form of accreditation if he was able to own and operate his own auto repair and maintenance shop, correct?"

"Right."

"And was there ever a time when you worked on a car without his supervision?"

"Yeah, all the time, actually." Kisame answered and started to realize where Itachi was going with this.

"I may not know how skilled you are as a mechanic or what kinds of questions will be on this exam, but I'm sure that with the experience you have, this test will be a breeze. You just need to remind yourself to relax and take your time with it."

Kisame nodded in agreement. Deep down inside he _did_ know what he was doing and was confident that he could answer any of the questions he came across on that test. "You know what? You're right. And besides, there's some online practice questions I could study I guess."

"That would be a good resource to study from and I highly recommend that you use it." Itachi said. "Do you have a date in mind for when you would like to sit the test?"

"Not yet, no."

His roommate nodded. "Well be sure to let me know so that I can wish you luck on the day that you decide to take it." He smiled. "And on the subject of payment…I know I said that I would allow you to live in my apartment rent-free but that was on the pretense that you would be taking classes that would conflict with your work schedule."

"I completely understand. I want to thank you for the offer, Itachi, but I'm going to have to decline."

"Alright."

"And you don't have to worry about that hundred-dollar test fee. I'll pay that myself too."

Itachi blinked in surprise. "Are you sure? The least I can do is pay for you to take the test since I insisted you pursue it in the first place."

Kisame shook his head. "It's fine. It's a small fee. I can pay for it myself. It's no big deal."

"Are you sure?" Itachi asked, skepticism lacing his voice.

"Positive." Kisame reaffirmed.

Seemingly content with Kisame's answer, Itachi allowed himself to relax and leaned back against the bed. "Alright. But if anything comes up, be sure to let me know so we can work it out."

"I will." Kisame said and rose to his feet. "Well I should probably get going so you can catch up on your rest."

Itachi, who had already closed his eyes, raised his eyebrows in response first, before opening his eyes to meet Kisame's. "Yeah. Thanks for stopping by, today."

"No, thank you for encouraging me to see this through."

"It's nothing, Kisame." Itachi dismissed.

"You may not think so, but I do. And let me tell you something," he said evenly, "Sasuke is lucky to have an older brother like you."

* * *

**The feels just keep coming and coming, don't they? *evil laugh***

**I wanted to point out real quick that Kisame keeps butchering the name of the chemotherapy drug he saw last chapter. The first time I wrote out that long word that started with an 'H' I wrote it correctly. Every time thereafter, Kisame has been butchering it in some fashion because he can't remember how to pronounce it.**

******To everyone who reviewed the last chapter: Thanks for the lovely reviews as alwayssssss~! They give life to my day, they really do. I will respond to them later though because I'm lazyyyyyyyyyyy**

**I can't say I know where I'm going with this now. I think the next chapter will be a Kisame chapter but I haven't really decided yet.**

**Stay tuned and expect to hear back from me mid-May or so!**

**Until next time~!**

**Sasori33-001**


	40. Chapter 40

"What kind of bread would you like?" Kisame asked the last customer of his shift.

"Uh, I'll take an Italian."

"Want it toasted?" _A NO START condition's been found on a vehicle with electronic fuel injection and an ignition without a distributor._

"Nah, I'll take it plain."

"Alright." _Next is the ham and vegetables. _"What kind of vegetables would you like on your sub, sir?"

The customer brought his fingers to his chin and stroked his beard. "Tomatoes, onions, lettuce and uh…"

_Technician A tells you that you should only use a DMM (digital multimeter) to check voltage values on PCM (Powertrain Control Module)._

"…ah what the hell. Throw some green peppers on there too."

"Okay." _Technician B says you should use a tool to test for a spark at one of the spark plugs. Who is right? _"Would you like anything else to go with your sub, sir?" Kisame asked.

"I'll take a bottled soda." He answered, nodding in the direction of the soda case.

"Will that be all?"

The customer, who had made his way over to the soda case, sat a bottle of cola on the counter and nodded. "That's it."

Kisame nodded in return and set to work slicing the sandwich in half and quickly wrapped it up to go. _DMM to check voltage values on PCM or tool to test for a spark at one of the spark plugs…_ "That'll be $2.43 sir."

Once the man swiped his card and received his food, Kisame turned on his heel and began to pull off his apron. "Mangetsu! I'm leaving!" He called into the back room where his manager was checking inventory.

"You sure you don't want so stay for the rest of the night, Kisame?" He smirked.

Kisame sighed in mock-disappointment. "You know I would if I could, Mangetsu, but I've got a meeting with a lawyer in an hour."

Just then, Suigetsu appeared from around the corner donning an apron of his own. "A lawyer? What'd you do? Traffic ticket? Drug possession?"

"_Suigetsu_." His older brother warned.

"Caught with a prostitute?"

Mangetsu brought down his clipboard against the metal rack with a loud clang that echoed through the back room. "_That's enough_. Kisame's personal affairs are none of your business so stay out of it."

"What? I was just askin'. What's wrong with that?"

"It's none of your business so you shouldn't have been asking in the first place." Mangetsu said and resumed what he was doing.

Kisame wondered if Itachi and Sasuke ever bickered with each other like that. Maybe when they were younger. From what he could tell, Sasuke was much more mature than Suigetsu was even though they looked to be about the same age. Speaking of Sasuke, if Kisame was late to this meeting with a lawyer Sasuke personally recommended, he'd never hear the end of it. "Well I better get going. Don't wanna be late."

"Take care, Kisame." Mangetsu said on his way out.

Kisame raised a hand in acknowledgement.

Once he exited the restaurant, he walked straight onto the road until he was standing in line with the cars parked along the edge of the sidewalk, waiting to cross the street. It was half past five, a time when several businessmen and women were commuting home from work, resulting in heavy traffic coming in and out of town. There was so much traffic rushing by in fact, that Kisame didn't notice Miru standing at the bridge until he had crossed the street.

"Miru?"

"Kisame?" She gasped and hurriedly looked out over the glimmering water that stretched as far as the eye could see.

"What are you doing here?" They both asked in unison.

"I just got off work, what are you doing here?" Kisame answered and leaned on the heated guard rail, hot from absorbing the brunt of the sun's rays all day. The fact that it was a sweltering ninety degrees outside didn't help matters any.

"Just…thinking." She sniffed.

Something wasn't quite right, Kisame knew. Only once had Miru met Kisame's eyes and that was partly because she was startled by his sudden appearance by her side. And there was a rough edge in the tone of her voice that had suggested she'd been crying. "Thinking about what, exactly?"

"Everything. My career, the person I live with."

It wasn't long ago that Kisame was thinking about the very same thing in the very same spot that Miru was standing in. But the things Kisame was thinking of at the time was whether he should jump or continue to fight tooth and nail for a better outcome. "Is everything alright? You can talk to me about it you know that right? You used to talk to me about everything."

Miru sighed. "It's nothing, my boyfriend and I just aren't seeing eye to eye is all."

"Aren't seeing eye to eye about what?" He was scraping for answers here.

She tilted her head up and gazed out onto the horizon. "He thinks I should spend less time 'playing with my children' and more time grading papers so I don't have to stay late or bring so much home with me every night but he doesn't understand what I do at all." She said. "I don't just play with children all day, I teach them. And since I'm so busy teaching them how to add and subtract and how to read, I can't grade papers at the same time. And I have to plan out my lessons and run copies during my planning period and grade papers on top of that. I'm not a preschool teacher; I don't spend all day playing with my students, I spend all day teaching them. Preparing them for the next step in their education, but all he's concerned about is me watching him play video games or cooking dinner for him when he gets home. I'm sorry but that's _not_ how it works."

Kisame nodded every few seconds, taking all of it in so he could find the right words to comfort his long-time friend. "It sounds like a lot of work. What you do, that is."

"It can be." She laughed. "And I'm still kinda new to this teaching thing! I don't have a whole lot of experience like some of the other teachers do, and I don't have all of the same materials as some of the other teachers either! I'm just trying to keep up and give my students the best, you know?"

Kisame nodded even though he didn't fully understand. He didn't need to. Miru was new to her job and had a lot on her plate. The least her boyfriend could do was be supportive, even if it just meant listening to her talk about her frustrations. "Have you told him any of this?"

She nodded, appearing as though she'd cry any second. "Several times. This isn't the first time we've had this argument either."

_He sounds like an ass who's not worth your time and energy._ Is what Kisame wanted to say to her but unlike her boyfriend, he was trying to be considerate of her feelings. It was bad enough that she was already stressed out to the point of tears. It wasn't his place to make things worse for her. But as her friend, it was his job to be honest with her, right?

"I know what you're gonna say. You're gonna tell me that he's a _jerk_ and that I should dump him but I don't want to be like those couples." She explained. "I don't want to be the girl who breaks things off with a guy when things get hard; my parents didn't raise me that way."

"Can I ask you a question? Would your parents want you to try to make things work out with a guy who doesn't understand what you do for a living? Who doesn't understand that you love what you do or why you wake up every day to do it?"

With that, Miru's lips quivered as her eyes began to brim over with tears. "No." She whispered.

"As your friend, I wouldn't want that for you either, Miru. Now I may not know the guy, but you're right, I do think that he's an insensitive asshole who doesn't have the right to make you feel the way you're feeling right now. Does he even know that you're here?"

She shook her head. "We had this argument over the phone before I left. So instead of preparing tomorrow's morning work and preparing the afternoon science lesson, I'm crying on the other side of town."

Kisame looked her over. He hated to see the girl he'd been friends with for almost two years like this. Shoulders shaking as she tries to hold back tears. And all because of some douche bag who only cares about himself. _If I was your boyfriend, you wouldn't have to worry about coming home late. I'd understand._

"Does your school allow visitors after hours?" He asked her.

"What do you mean?"

He scratched the back of his head. "Well I was going to offer to help you get your stuff done at the school. That is, if I'm allowed to."

She wiped her eyes. "You'd do that for me?"

Kisame smiled. "Any time. You know that."

"You don't have anywhere to be tonight? I thought you worked a couple of jobs."

_Shoot. That meeting's in an hour. I wonder if I can cancel…I'll just text Sasuke saying that something came up and that I can't make it._ "I'm free all night." He assured her.

"You're the best, Kisame." She said, and pulled her car keys from out of her purse.

"I try to be."

* * *

**So um...everyone who thinks Sasuke will be pissed off say "Aye." *raises hand* And that is what to expect in the next chapter which will be a Kisame chapter (as far as I'm concerned).**

**Added bonus: I might update that chapter relatively quickly since I have a clear idea of what I want to happen next! (or I may not update so quickly as I have a busy week ahead of me this week...)**

******To the Guest who left a review for the last chapter on April 24: Thank you thank you thank you! The emotions are kinda easy to write (if you know what I mean - doubting Kisame, angry Sasuke, I'm-fine-I-don't-need-any-help-Itachi), and the characterization just sorta follows and the pacing...I'm glad you like it! I actually have an electronic calendar that I mark with when every chapter occurs so I have an idea of how fast things are going ((**mild spoiler**: It's currently July 31st and Kisame's test is set to take place on August 23rd~ ;) ) But any who, the review made me super happy and I was so ready to respond to it when I realized I couldn't because you're a guest but hopefully this little shout-out remedies the fact!**

******To AbsoluteAnarchy **AND** The Secret Sal: Does Kisame's advice to Miru sound a wee bit familiar to either of you~? *shifty eyes***

**Until next time~!**

**Sasori33-001**

**PS: I did look up an online practice test and slightly rephrased one of the actual questions I found on it. I also took a 14 question practice test about engine repair and received a 57% on it! :D Don't let me fix any of your cars any time soon!**


	41. Chapter 41

**Place your bets! Because it's about to get heated!**

******To The Secret Sal: This is not the dark gift in which I spoke of the other day. This is simply another riveting chapter of Parallel Lines~ ;)))  
**

******To Absolute Anarchy: Grab some popcorn - you gonna need it! ;)**

* * *

While he was helping Miru run various posters through the laminating machine, Kisame started to regret skipping his appointment with the lawyer if 6 missed calls, 4 voicemail messages, and 8 angry text messages from Itachi's kid brother was anything to go by.

When he returned home to a quiet apartment at half past eight he was positive that certain death awaited him. If Itachi had set up the appointment with the lawyer, Kisame wouldn't have been so worried. The older Uchiha had told him time and time again that he could talk to him about anything without fear of being kicked out.

But said Uchiha was currently in the hospital and couldn't help Kisame here. Unless he already warded Sasuke off. That would explain the eerie silence blanketing the room.

"Dodged the bullet on that one." Kisame said. No sooner had he released the breath he'd been holding that he sucked it back in when he heard the clicking of tumblers behind him.

"What the hell was that?" Sasuke hissed. "You had one job – _one. Job. _Meet with Kakashi to settle your property problem and you blew it off!"

Kisame held his hands up in defense and took a step forward. "I know, and I'm sorry, a friend needed help and—"

"What do you think this is? Some sort of doctor's appointment you can cancel on a whim? Pay a fee and move on with your life? Well guess what? It's not, okay? The world doesn't work that way." He fumed.

"I was helping out a friend—" Kisame attempted to argue before Sasuke dove back in.

"No! That's not good enough!" Sasuke roared, taking a step closer to Kisame with every word until they were back up against the couches. "If your 'friend' was dying on the side of the road in the middle of no where without cell phone service for you to call an ambulance, fine, I'll take it. But that wasn't the case because if it was, you would've mentioned it in your lame ass text message or better yet – _called_ me to explain the situation!"

"Look, kid, I'm sorry! I-I-I wasn't thinking clearly. She was upset and I just figured—"

"Just figured what exactly? That Kakashi would go home after waiting thirty minutes for you? That I'd happily reschedule in hopes that this meeting doesn't conflict with a baby shower or something more important than moving back to the garage you used to live in? If so, you're an even bigger dumbass than I thought."

Kisame turned and ran a hand through his hair. He already punched Sasuke in the face once and that was on accident. If he punched him a second time, this time on _purpose_, Itachi would really evict him. And then he'd have no chance of moving back into Suikazan's. _If I did punch the little snot, I'm sure he'll see to it that I never set foot within a hundred miles of Suikazan's and sue me for breaking his nose or something._ Sighing to regain his composure, he turned to face Sasuke once more. "I'm sorry. Okay? I'm sorry. I made a stupid mistake and it won't happen again. I promise."

On a normal day, Sasuke's eyes were very narrow. A characteristic of his mother's Asian roots, Kisame always thought. The same for Itachi. But in this moment, they were slits darkened by his deeply furrowed brow. "Do you know what I had to go through to make this happen? Kakashi doesn't just take on cases from random people off the street. He's the kind of guy who picks and _chooses_ what cases he takes because he's just that good at what he does. He's the kind of guy I'd want arguing my case if I had problems dealing with an estate because he's done it literally _thousands_ of times before!"

"If want, I can pay you for going to such lengths—"

Sasuke chuckled darkly. "Like you have the kind of money that would pay for the services of someone like Kakashi."

Now it was Kisame's turn to narrow his eyes. "Then how was I going to afford all of this if it's so expensive? You told me that you had everything taken care of. Why would you go out of your way to hire someone who charges more than I can afford?" He asked, feeling his face grow hot. "And if you're going to make a jab at what I do for a living, save it – you're not the one who agreed to be my roommate so you have no room to comment."

"First of all, I told you I had it covered because I _did_. If you would've let me do what I needed to do, you wouldn't have had to worry about _anything._ But instead you go off and do this!"

"Then find me a lawyer whose services I can afford so I can pay you for all the trouble you're going to!" Kisame cried.

"Not gonna happen. I worked this hard to set you up with Kakashi, and despite you messing up your first meeting with him, I'm going to make sure that you see through this until the very end."

"Why?" The older man demanded. "I don't understand. If having this Kakashi guy work with me is so much trouble why not find me somebody else? Somebody I can actually afford!"

"I already told you: Kakashi is the best there is." He ground out and strolled into the kitchen like it was a done deal.

But it wasn't. "You know what?" Kisame started, stalking after the younger Uchiha. "You are one of the most disrespectful brats I have ever had the displeasure of knowing and trust me – I've come across a lot in my life time. We're not done here! You and I haven't come to a conclusion on anything and you're more concerned with…" he glanced to see what it was that Sasuke had grabbed from the refrigerator… "_making a_ _salad_?! Unbelievable."

"I'm sorry, but you're the disrespectful one here. Did you honestly think I was going to be okay with you texting me," Sasuke pulled out his phone, "and I quote 'can we call of the meeting with the lavyer tonight something came up sorry'? Did you honestly think that was smart?"

Kisame grit his teeth. "I know you think you're better than me because you went to college and law school but that is no excuse for you to constantly take jabs at my intelligence you little…"

"I _dare_ you to finish that sentence. In fact, why don't you go ahead and punch me in the face again? I'm sure Itachi will solve your housing dilemma in the blink of an eye."

Kisame clenched his fists and screwed his eyes shut. As much as he wanted to take Sasuke up on that offer, he knew the consequences would be bad. Itachi _would_ evict him in the blink of an eye and Sasuke would probably rob him blind in a court room one week from now. In fact, he'd probably underestimate the strength of his rage and render Sasuke brain dead. Not only would Kisame be out on his ass with no money to his name – he'd be in jail with a record. A record that would follow him around for the rest of his life and prevent him from having any kind of idealistic future.

While he considered this, Sasuke quietly sliced a plump red tomato and regarded Kisame from the corner of his eye. When it was apparent that Kisame wasn't going to take him up on his offer, he slipped a slice into his mouth and said "Thought so."

Clenching his right arm, Kisame turned on his heel and walked to the island that separated the kitchen from the living room. "I know what you're trying to do." He murmured and looked over his shoulder. "And I'm not falling for it. And because I'm going to try to be the bigger person here, I'm going to say this again: I'm sorry for tonight. But let me set one thing straight with you: Itachi is the one who gave me the chance to live here. He's also the one who encouraged me to pursue my auto mechanics accreditation. He's given me a thousand chances – way more than anyone's ever given me before and way more than I probably deserve. And I'm not going to take advantage of that." He said. "So if you want to retract your offer and let me find a lawyer myself – fine. It's going to take a lot more than that to get rid of me. I'm Itachi's roommate and if you don't like it, you're going to have to take it up with him because I'm not going anywhere."

The look he received in response wasn't quite the face of embarrassment or shock Kisame was hoping for. Sasuke's eyes were dead. Unreadable. "When was the last time you saw Itachi?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Answer. The damn. Question."

"Last Thursday, why?"

Sasuke shook his head and returned to his cutting. "Despite all your big talk, you're still an ignorant dumbass."

In a matter of seconds, Kisame was behind him, drawing back his arm to throw the first punch.

* * *

**Oh boy. I think the major question here is: How is Itachi going to react?  
**

**By the way, I purposefully misspelled the things in Kisame's text message Sasuke read aloud~ did anyone catch that? ;)**

**My plans for chapter 41 are in place but I don't know how quickly I'm going to update it (this kind of craft takes time you know - that, and I'm busy -_-) But I'm thinking it'll be a Kisame chapter whenever I get around to it. Itachi's sick and receiving treatment. There isn't much his point of view can contribute at the moment.  
**

******To The Secret Sal: In case you didn't read my wonderfully necessary bolded note in the beginning of the chapter, I shall repeat myself: this is not the dark gift I mentioned a few days ago~ ;)**

******To Ketoprak: 1) Thank you for the review! Oh! I made me glow for the rest of the day (and to a lesser extent it made me want to update faster but alas, time constraints and you can't rush this kind of thing even if the chapters are all so very short in length... 2) Did you say...Kisame, punch, and Sasuke in the same sentence? What a coincidence that he would end up doing just that again in this chapter~! haha! 3) I love your short summaries of the characters' personalities. I especially liked the "we-are-cool-and-i-won't-pry" X'D Loved it! And I try to keep the characters canon. It can be hard since I don't immerse myself in the manga/anime as much anymore to perfectly nail their mannerisms but I hope what I've written is passable. I know that in the canon Kisame isn't fond of liars and hasn't really been shown to have a temper like this, but I think being called dumb/stupid by a "little snot" like Sasuke would piss anyone off if done often enough. (come to think of it, the squad with Miru on it in the canon called him dumb and look how they ended up: dead!) *shifty eyes***

**Until next time~!**

**Sasori33-001**


	42. Chapter 42

******To The Secret Sal: Again, this is not the dark gift that I mentioned. This is simply another chapter of Parallel Lines~ ;)**

* * *

Visiting Itachi in his current state wasn't at the top of Kisame's to-do list for the day. After throwing a punch at Sasuke only to miss and hit the cabinet behind his head instead left his right hand bruised and bloody and in need of bandaging which was going to be a bitch when he returned back to Hozuki's. By then, he hoped he wouldn't need the bandages anymore and could proceed with his day-to-day tasks.

As much as he wanted to avoid confronting Itachi about the events that transpired last night, Sasuke's words lingered at the back of his mind. _"When was the last time you saw Itachi?"_

Kisame still didn't have a clue as to what the younger Uchiha could have meant by that. _He can't be dead. I just saw him last Thursday. Less than one week ago. He can't be dead._ Surely if Itachi had passed away, Sasuke would've kicked Kisame out the first chance he got if not last night. But he didn't. And even if Sasuke had some sort of ulterior motive for keeping him around Kisame surely would've caught word of Itachi's passing. If anything, he would've seen the signs in Sasuke.

_As emotionless as the little __shit __is, the death of his beloved older brother would surely affect him, right?_ Right.

Upon reaching Itachi's room, Kisame clenched the smooth metal handle and took a deep breath. _Whatever it is, I'm sure I'll find out soon enough,_ he thought to himself and pushed open the door.

Before him, Itachi was lying in bed with his eyes closed. Not wanting to wake him, Kisame gingerly stepped forward to examine if he was still alive or not. His chest was rising and falling and his mouth was free of any tubes which meant that he was at least breathing on his own. The tubes attached to his chest to feed chemotherapy directly into his system had been removed several weeks ago so their absence didn't bother Kisame any. All around him, Itachi was surrounded by computer screens that monitored his heart rate and stuff (and come to think of it, Kisame never knew what half of those machines were even for, but figuring that out was for a different day). Looking him up and down, Kisame noted that Itachi was still wearing the knit hat Sasuke had given him and there were no signs of his jet black locks growing back as they would've been peeking out from beneath the fabric. And at the foot of the bed hung the Uchiha's medical charts. _So he's not dead. _Kisame exhaled. _That's a relief_.

Looking him over once more, Kisame decided it would be wise to take his leave. It was stupid of him to think that Itachi would be awake every time he stopped by to visit and there was still the matter of finding a ride back to Itachi's apartment since Sasuke had driven him to the hospital last night.

"_When was the last time you saw Itachi?"_

Kisame grit his teeth at the thought. _I guess that was just another attempt to egg me on…make me think my roommate's dying just to get a rise out of me…and now I've gotta explain why there's a hole in his cabinet now…unbelievable…_

"…-same…?"

At the mention of his name, Kisame turned from the door to see Itachi's eyes flutter open. "Did I wake you? Sorry. Go back to sleep, I'll come back another day."

Itachi raised his hand and beckoned him over to the bed. "No…stay…there was something I wanted…to ask you…"

_Great._ It took all of the willpower in Kisame not to roll his eyes. "What'd you want to ask?"

"Sit down."

Without asking questions, Kisame did as he was told and pulled a chair over to Itachi's bedside.

Itachi's eyes lolled to the side and drifted shut before opening moments later.

"If you're tired, I can come back another time. Or I could call you or I could—"

"It's fine." Itachi dismissed in short breath. "What happened to your hand?"

_It was only a matter time._ "I got mad and punched a cabinet last night." He said which wasn't lying. He did get mad last night and he did punch a cabinet. "I'm sorry; I'll pay to have it replaced."

"So Sasuke told you?" Itachi asked and glanced at the ceiling. Upon close examination, there were tears forming at the rims of his slowly reddening eyes.

"Told me what?" Kisame asked.

Itachi spared a glance at him before closing his eyes again. "The chemotherapy didn't work."

"What do you mean it didn't work?" Kisame asked, his bandaged hand and stitches now forgotten. "But you have cancer and chemotherapy's supposed to cure that, right?"

Itachi shook his head. "There is no cure for cancer, Kisame. You can only hope that surgery, radiation or chemotherapy can control it to the point where it goes into remission. Even then it can come back."

"Then have it removed! You said surgery right, so get it removed!"

The barest of smiles graced Itachi's face. "It doesn't work like that, Kisame. I don't have a cancerous tumor that can be cut out with a scalpel. My cancer resides in my bone marrow and is thus spread across my body. The only thing I can do now is hope for a bone marrow transplant."

It didn't matter that Kisame didn't know much about cancer or the treatment that went into it. Itachi gave him a place to live when he was in danger of living on the streets again. Itachi gave him a chance even when he didn't deserve any. Itachi trusted him. At this point, Itachi was one of Kisame's only friends and didn't want to lose him before having the chance to get to know him better. "Then what are you waiting for?"

"I need a donor."

"What about Sasuke?" Kisame suggested helpfully. He may not have fully understood the siblings' relationship with each other but if there was a chance that this thing could kill him, Kisame was sure that Sasuke would step up to the plate no matter the risk.

Apparently that was the wrong thing to ask as the tears collecting at the rims of Itachi's eyes finally dribbled over, running down his cheek. "He's not a match."

Wasting no time, Kisame fired off his next suggestion. "I'll do it. Tell me what I have to do to help you get better."

"Kisame," Itachi sighed, "it's not that easy. They say that siblings are the closest match – second to that being one's parents or blood relatives but all of my blood relatives are dead."

"I can try though, can't I?" Kisame pleaded with him.

Most days, Itachi's eyes were unreadable but in this moment, his doubts were clear. "If you want, but trust me when I say that you most likely won't be a match."

"And if I'm not?"

Itachi released a shaky breath. "Then they'll have to consult the national bone marrow registry for someone who's a close enough match."

"And then what?"

"And then we proceed from there. But first we need to find someone whose bone marrow closely resembles my own before we can begin to think of the transplantation process."

Having no other suggestions or helpful remarks, Kisame nodded and stared into his lap. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Itachi wiped at the corners of his eyes with the back of his hand. "There is, actually."

"What is it?"

"Be patient with my brother. This…this isn't easy for him, especially since he's used to getting his way." Itachi explained. "Me being in the hospital has made him more irritable than usual and when that happens he'll say things he shouldn't which I suspect is why you nearly punched him in the face again, am I correct?"

_Shoot. He knows._ "I'm sorry. It was kinda my fault, actually; he scheduled an appointment with this lawyer and I blew it off to help out a friend and—"

"I know Kisame. Sasuke was here when he received the text and flew off the handle quite simply." Itachi said. "Needless to say, I knew this was going to happen and I'm happy no one got hurt…save for your hand."

"My hand will heal, Itachi. Just focus on getting better for now, okay?"

At this, Itachi gave him a genuine smile. "Thanks. I will. And don't worry about Sasuke. I'll talk to him later today. Just…"

"Yeah?"

"If Sasuke ever goes out of his way for you again…don't take it for granted, okay?"

Kisame smiled as Itachi's eyes drifted shut again. "I won't."

* * *

**How heart-warming~ (Absolute Anarchy and The Secret Sal - I had to work _really_ hard not to let my KisaIta roots show through by having Kisame reach out to hold Itachi's hand after that last bit there! (not that you guys would've protested but still~ ;) )**

**Fun fact!: So far, this story contains 23 Kisame chapters and 20 (soon to be 21) Itachi chapters! Can you believe how even it is?**

**The next chapter is set to be an Itachi chapter - though you all know that it can change on a dime~ just depends on my mood!  
**

**Until next time~!**

**Sasori33-001**


	43. Chapter 43

**Author's Note: Yay! 100 reviews! Thank you so very very much to everyone who has taken the time to read this! A special thanks to The Secret Sal for being the 1st and 100th reviewer (love you sweet cakes! *mwauh!*) and I foresee this story coming to a close very soon! (The end of June at the earliest and the end of July at the latest!)**

* * *

"Are you even listening or what?"

Itachi blinked a few times, hoping that by doing so, his brain would more quickly register the words leaving Sasuke's mouth. "I'm trying." He sighed and sat up straighter in bed.

Sasuke stood at the foot of the bed with his arms crossed in front of his chest, impatiently waiting for Itachi to find a more comfortable position.

"So you scheduled an appointment with Kakashi and talked it over with Kisame as well?" Itachi asked once he secured one of his pillows under his arms to use for leverage.

"Of course I talked it over with him! I talked to him about his work schedule so I could find a time for him to meet with Kakashi, scheduled it, and told him when to be there, who to ask for, and what to expect. I explained it in such simple terms that a child could've done it."

"Sasuke." Itachi warned. "Do you speak to your clients that way?"

"He's not my client Itachi. This is not a professional matter, it's a personal one." Sasuke shot back.

"But don't you think it would be a good idea to treat it as if it were a professional matter for when you do acquire a job at a law firm? To obtain some real world experience outside of the classroom?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Whatever. It's not like I said that to his face. It _was_ professional, Itachi. It was professional all the way up until he sent me this lame text message telling me that he wanted to cancel and doesn't answer his phone for the rest of the night. _That's_ when it stopped being professional."

"Did he say why he wanted to cancel?" Itachi sighed. In a perfect world, he would be sleeping instead of playing the role of mediator and desperately trying to fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle. But this wasn't a perfect world. He had cancer and was required to stay in the hospital for the duration of his treatment while his roommate and brother fought each other over the most senseless things.

Sasuke scoffed. "After the day _I_ had, I didn't want to hear it."

_It's like pulling apart two fighting children on a playground._ Itachi mused. "What happened afterwards?"

"Then he started apologizing and offering to pay for the cancelled appointment which is stupid because there's nothing he can do! Kakashi is helping him as a favor to me. He doesn't do court cases anymore – he teaches college students. And because it's a simple matter of estate, he's not gonna charge the guy anything."

"Did you tell Kisame that?"

"No because I had everything covered. I made the arrangements with Kakashi, I worked out a time with your roommate and that was that! I even took precautions and told Kisame to be there and hour late because I knew that Kakashi would be _at_ _least_ an hour late himself!"

"Did Kisame know that?"

"It doesn't matter because Kisame cancelled before he could even meet the guy! If he'd gone to the appointment and sent me a text asking where Kakashi was, then I might have told him but that's not the point. The point is, the appointment was supposed to be at five thirty, and I told Kisame to be there an hour later because that's when Kakashi would've showed up."

At this point Itachi decided to drop the subject of the appointment time because they were going in circles now. "Fine, I get it. So what happened next?"

"I walked away to make myself a salad because I hadn't eaten anything since one and he's still going off about finding a lawyer he could pay for himself or something."

Itachi shook his head. "I'm still confused as to how this all escalated, Sasuke—"

Sasuke, who had been staring out the window, spun around to face Itachi with wide eyes. "Don't ask me! Ask him! It's not my fault that he got stabbed if that's what you're getting at!"

"Wait, what?"

"He got pissed off and threw a punch at me while I was holding a knife! What did he think was going to happen?" Sasuke shouted and lowered his voice to mutter "Fucking moron."

"So you stabbed him!?" It was clear that he was no longer dealing with children on the playground. He was dealing with barbarians on a war path.

"On accident! I was cutting a tomato for my salad when he decided to start throwing punches. I turned around out of instinct to dodge it and the knife went into his side."

Barbarians. Absolute barbarians.

"Don't look at me like that I took him to the hospital and stayed with him until I knew he'd be fine. It was just a butter knife, Itachi. It didn't even puncture anything and took like two stitches to sew up. He was fine."

This is what Itachi knew so far. Sasuke offered to help Kisame move back to Suikazan's and asked Kakashi to do it as a favor. The two scheduled a meeting time an hour after the actual meeting time unbeknownst to Kisame because Kakashi was known for being tardy. Kisame asked Sasuke to cancel the appointment via text message and didn't answer any of Sasuke's calls. When Sasuke returned home Kisame attempted to apologize for cancelling on such short notice but Sasuke wasn't listening and instead opted to make a salad. Kisame became enraged, threw a punch which Sasuke dodged and somehow Kisame ended up with a butter knife in his side in the emergency room last night.

He was tired. All Itachi wanted to do was close his eyes and drift off to sleep until one of the nurses checked on him later on. But instead he was trying to understand the events of an evening that no one wanted to talk about.

Shaking his head, he leaned forward to prop an elbow on his blanketed knee and closed his eyes.

"What?" Sasuke spat.

Itachi glanced up at him with tired eyes. "I know you're upset—"

"Wouldn't you be furious too if somebody pulled a stunt like that!?"

"Let me finish." He warned, promptly shutting Sasuke up. "I know that you're upset about not being a candidate for my bone marrow transplant."

Sasuke furrowed his brow. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"It has to do with everything, Sasuke. You're frustrated that I'm sick with cancer, you're frustrated that there's nothing more you can do to help me, and you're angry at the world, Sasuke. You're angry at the world and you're taking it out on everyone around you."

"That's not true!" Sasuke shouted once more. "I'm doing everything I can do help you out here! I moved back into your apartment, and I'm trying to help your roommate move back to the stupid garage he cares so much about!"

"Maybe you should wait to help him out until I'm better…"

"When's that gonna be? Huh? You've been here for almost a month now and the chemo drugs aren't working! You need a bone marrow transplant now and siblings are usually the best match but I'm not a match for you! And mom and dad are dead so now we have to wait!" He cried, his voice starting to crack slightly.

"Sasuke, sit down, please."

"We have to wait and…and…and who knows what'll happen to you if we wait too long! If we can't find a donor! You'll just keep getting sicker and sicker and then what!? Then I'll have to talk to Kakashi about your will and estate and end up kicking your idiot of a roommate out myself!"

With every sentence, Sasuke's face grew redder and redder as his eyes started to glaze over. "Sasuke, please, sit down." Itachi pleaded once more, patting a space beside him on the bed. "You're overreacting. It might not even come to that." He coaxed his younger brother.

But Sasuke was too far gone as his mouth started to quiver and the tears started to spill over. "You don't know that though! You don't know that! If you die, I'll be all alone. I'll be all alone and the only thing I'll be able to remember you by is how I spent your last days screaming at you about your stupid roommate, and how I didn't even know you had cancer until you were admitted into the hospital."

Without hesitation, Itachi placed the pillow he had been holding at the foot of the bed and tossed the covers off his legs. He still wasn't clear what was said Tuesday night that would move Kisame to punch him in the face, but he didn't need to. Less than five feet away from him, his stoic little brother was facing reality. And after being strong in the face of Itachi for so many weeks, trying so hard to make up for the things he'd done wrong and keeping everything inside, he was starting to crumble.

As tired as Itachi was, seeing his twenty-five year old brother sobbing so hard that his shoulders shook pained him more than the hundreds of needles he'd been poked and prodded with over the past month. "Shhh…it's alright. It's alright." He said, collecting Sasuke into a tight hug.

Not surprisingly, Sasuke allowed himself to be comforted and rested his forehead on Itachi's shoulder since he was roughly the same height as his older brother. "I didn't even want to help him."

"Don't worry about that right now, Sasuke. I understand. You don't need to explain yourself."

"I could care less about his dead boss or the garage he used to live in." He said between sniffles.

Despite Itachi's words, it was apparent that Sasuke was going to say what he wanted to say so Itachi let him. "Then why did you offer to help him?"

"Because I'm broke, nii-san." He said, looking up to meet Itachi's eyes.

"You're broke?"

Sasuke nodded shakily. "You were right. I thought I had everything figured out but I didn't. My jobs barely cover my monthly rent and I tried to reduce the amount of food I bought at the store, I tried to use my car less, I tried everything."

"Why didn't you tell me? I would've loaned you some money, surely you knew I would help you if you needed it."

The younger Uchiha shook his head and pushed away from him. "I didn't ask you for help because of all the things I said to you before I moved out. I couldn't bring myself to admit that I was wrong so I did everything I could to prove to you that I could make it work. Itachi I-I-I sold the watch you gave me for graduation." He said.

And once again his face crumpled into itself as he began to sob.

While it pained Itachi to know that Sasuke would sooner sell his graduation gift before asking Itachi for help, he didn't comment. He didn't comment because witnessing Sasuke break down like this hurt more than anything else Itachi ever experienced in his thirty years of living. "It's okay."

"No it's not!" Sasuke cried and attempted to push away once more.

But Itachi simply held him tighter and propped his chin on Sasuke's shoulder. "It's o-kay. I forgive you."

"How? How can you just forgive me? Just like that?"

"I can forgive you because I was young once too and thought that I could do anything if I worked hard enough for it. And I can always buy you another watch. I'd do anything and everything in my power if it meant I wouldn't have to see you like this."

"Why?" Sasuke sniffed.

Itachi gazed into Sasuke's puffy eyes and smiled slightly. "Because you're my little brother and I love you. That's why."

* * *

**Well now that we all know where the goddamned tissues are! *sniff***

**The next chapter will be a Kisame chapter I'm thinking~**

**Until next time~!**

**Sasori33-001**


	44. Chapter 44

******To The Secret Sal: Thanks for being the 100th reviewer - as a reward, I've included a little something something - not anything big, think of it as a nod to one of your interests - in this chapter ;)**

* * *

Kisame was tired.

First a six hour shift at Hozuki's from 4 – 10:30pm, a four hour nap back at Itachi's, and then a seven hour shift at the convenience store the next morning.

His rims of his eyelids burned every second he kept them open. Every blink was like a light switch being turned off. There were a few instances when his mind went blank and he disengaged from the world around him only to be brought back by the sudden jerk of his head snapping upright again. On top of that, his knuckles were still smarting from when he threw a punch at Sasuke two nights ago.

And as much as he wanted to go home and lock himself in his bedroom to pass out, another matter more pressing than his fatigue was weighing on his mind.

"Kisame?"

"Hey," Kisame smiled into the phone. "How's everything going?"

Miru hummed. "Uh…everything's going good. The kids are at art class right now and will be going to lunch right afterwards. What about you? How's everything going?"

_I was in the hospital for punching a cabinet, my lawyer-in-training is __ticked __that I canceled my appointment with a real lawyer, and I'm ready to pass out in the street. _"Good, good. Everything's going great."

"That's good!"

Kisame chuckled and moved out of the way of an oncoming couple walking in the opposite direction. A tall man with long, unkempt black hair holding the hand of a tan skinned man with long brown hair. Now Kisame wasn't one to judge based on sexual preferences so the fact that they were both men didn't bother him any. What bothered him was that these uniquely different people had someone who loved them for who they were – flaws included – whereas Kisame had a roommate with cancer who tolerated his stupidity and anger issues, said roommate's hostile brother who hated his guts and an old friend stuck in a dead-end relationship. "So…how's everything been with your boyfriend? Have you guys talked at all since the other day?"

He could hear Miru shrug into the phone and heard the crisp stacking of papers in the background. "Yeah, we talked about it and he apologized."

"That's it?"

"Hm-hm! That's it! Why?" She asked.

"And you're okay with that?" He asked, abruptly stopping in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Yeah…I mean…I'm not like you, Kisame. I'm not going to throw a punch at every person who upsets me. For one, I'd break my hand!" She laughed. "And it's just easier to forgive and forget, you know?"

"I don't…actually."

"Excuse me," A young girl whispered as she inched past him.

Kisame's eyes followed her as she disappeared into the dimly lit restaurant he'd stopped in front of.

"Kisame? You still there?"

"Yeah. Yeah." He said and continued walking. Itachi's building was in sight. Just another block and he'd be there. "And I don't punch everyone who makes me mad."

"You used to." Miru giggled. "I spent too many nights bandaging your hand because somebody looked at you 'the wrong way' or 'said the wrong thing'. But maybe you've changed."

_I really haven't though. That's the sad part._ He mused. "But you were crying the other night, Miru. Your boyfriend probably had no idea where you were – you didn't come straight home and it wasn't until later on that you texted him saying that you were at the school."

"I know, Kisame, but that wasn't the first time we've had that argument—"

"And it won't be the last either." He cut in. "You don't seem happy with him, Miru—"

"I _am_ happy with him, Kisame. Look, I know you don't like him, but you also don't know him."

"Because he doesn't like me!"

"Because he doesn't know you either!" She groaned. "Listen, I should go. This is my planning period and it's almost over."

"Wait, I'm not—"

"And I need to take the kids to lunch, Kisame. This conversation can wait."

"But you're not—"

"Bye, Kisame."

And just like that, the line clicked off.

-8-8-8-8-

"There you are." Sasuke said, rising from his chair. "We need to talk about scheduling another appointment with Kakashi."

_This isn't what I need right now._ "Can it wait?"

Sasuke regarded him with wide eyes before releasing a short, mocking laugh. "Can it wait? _Can it wait?_ Are you fucking serious right now? Yeah it can wait! It can wait until the state claims the property and there's nothing we can do!" He laughed. "I've waited long enough to help you with this so no, this can't wait!"

_"__If Sasuke ever goes out of his way for you again…don't take it for granted, okay?"_

Itachi's words rung in Kisame's mind and as much as he wanted to ignore the annoying little gnat buzzing in his face and lock himself in his room he wanted to at least try to reason with him. "I know I screwed up last time and I know I've made you wait but I worked all night last night and I need to lay down so can it _please_ wait until another day this week?" He said "please." His mother would be proud that he remembered to use his manners when asking for something he wanted.

The corner of Sasuke's mouth twisted upwards. "I don't think you understand. I've tried really hard to work with you. I've waited to talk to you until you were free which is never considering that you're not the only one with two jobs—"

_Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Count to ten._

"—and…are you even listening?"

"Why is helping me so important to you?" Kisame asked.

"What?"

"Why do you care so much?" He asked again, turning to face the younger Uchiha. "Because every time you talk to me, you're always agitated—"

Sasuke furrowed his brow and took a step closer. "I wasn't agitated until you canceled that appointment!" He grit out. "I was calm and collected until you did that. Until you decided that canceling wouldn't be such a big deal – that I didn't pull several strings to give you the chance to meet with someone like Kakashi Hatake – that this 'important meeting' was so unimportant that you could just cancel by text! That's why I'm agitated!"

"And I apologized for it!" Kisame shouted and brought his fingers to his nose. _Be patient with my brother. This…this isn't easy for him, especially since he's used to getting his way. And my being in the hospital has made him more irritable than usual and when that happens he'll say things he shouldn't…_ "I'm trying to be patient with you but it's kinda hard when you're hell-bent on attacking me every chance you get! I know you're upset that Itachi's in the hospital – I get that but—"

"No! No you don't get it!" He yelled. "You don't know me and you sure as hell don't know Itachi so don't go around acting like you do! Itachi's the only reason that I'm even helping you in the first place because if by chance he beats this cancer, I'd very much like to move back into my old bedroom so I can take care of him but I can't because you still haven't met with Kakashi to move back into that auto garage you call home! So there! That's why helping you is so important to me because if it wasn't for Itachi I would've thrown in the towel the minute I got that text message Tuesday!"

_Be patient with my brother._ The thought was laughable as Kisame clutched his phone so hard it would smash into a million pieces if he threw it into the wall. It was still a better option than smashing Sasuke's face into a wall, a thought that was becoming more and more appealing the longer Kisame put up with this bullshit.

"Where are you going?" Sasuke asked.

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Sasuke pulling out his phone.

Kisame was tired.

He was tired of being ruthlessly attacked by Itachi's kid brother and being expected to take the insults no matter how many times he apologized for cancelling that damn appointment.

He was tired of receiving a phone call from Itachi asking to meet him at the hospital so they could discuss his latest altercation between himself and Sasuke and having to explain himself in the face of his roommate. Of feeling sorry for causing the man so much trouble when he had enough on his plate. He chuckled once the elevator doors slid open upon reaching the lobby. At this rate, he and Sasuke had a dispute once a week. Itachi didn't need that.

Kisame himself didn't need any of this. Didn't need to be treated like this by a stuck up twenty-something know-it-all straight out of college. In fact, he never signed up for this. Never asked to put up with this kid while Itachi got treated fifteen minutes away.

Pretty soon, he wouldn't have to.

At twelve forty-five in the afternoon, the lunch rush was seated in a restaurant or diner somewhere enjoying their lunch breaks leaving the bridge fairly empty. Devoid of people.

And free of witnesses.

* * *

**So I want to give you guys a heads up - I've got a lot going on in my life right now that I can't really talk about at this moment. Let's just say that it's depressing (please don't mention any of it in a review should you decide to leave one) and since this story has taken a rather depressing turn (one I've planned all along) it's taking me longer to write. So all I ask is for you to bear with me, okay? Be patient.**

**As for the next chapter - I think it'll be an Itachi chapter. I haven't really committed to the idea yet.**

**Until next time~!**

**Sasori33-001**


	45. Chapter 45

_At twelve forty-five in the afternoon, the lunch rush was seated in a restaurant or diner somewhere enjoying their lunch breaks leaving the bridge fairly empty. Devoid of people._

_And free of witnesses._

-8-8-8-8-

"Good morning, Itachi!" Shizune greeted with bright smile. "It's still morning right? Or is it noon yet?" She checked her watch to make certain. "Eleven forty-five; oh good, it's still morning so good morning!"

Shizune's exuberance never failed to bring a smile to Itachi's face though he did not laugh along with her today. Itachi knew that the chemotherapy wasn't working and that if he had any hopes of making it another year, he needed a bone marrow transplant lest his leukemia consume him. Sasuke wasn't a donor and they had since consulted with the National Bone Marrow registry for a close match.

"How are you feeling this morning Itachi?" She asked, looking from the monitors beside his head and her clipboard whilst scribbling down a few notes. Shizune wasn't his regular nurse. In actuality, Shizune was his oncologist's assistant. Shizune's appearance always indicated that a visit from Tsunade herself wasn't far behind.

"Tired." Itachi laughed weakly. "Very, very, tired."

Shizune looked him in the eyes. Her bright smile morphed into a sympathetic frown. "I know, Itachi, I know. We're doing what we can to find you a suitable bone marrow donor which is what Tsunade is going to talk to you about in a few minutes or so—."

"Good morning, Itachi!" Tsunade roared as she turned the corner, her sharp heels clicking so loudly that they seemed to punctuate every syllable that escaped her mouth. "How are you doing this morning?" She asked, reaching out to receive his chart from Shizune.

"I'm exhausted." Itachi answered her.

"Unfortunately, that is to be expected. But that's nothing compared to when we obliterate your bone marrow for transplant."

"The transplant?" Itachi asked, perking up a little. "Does that mean…did you find a match?"

He looked to Tsunade who was still studying his charts and then to Shizune for an answer. It sounded like they had found a potential donor for him which was good news, right? If that were the case, Shizune would be beaming with excitement instead of casting her gaze to the floor.

Just when he was about to speak up, Tsunade lowed his chart and flipped her bangs out of her face with a flick of her chin. "Yes. We found a match."

"That's great!" Itachi exclaimed.

Shizune forced a smile. "It is!"

"But," Itachi started.

Tsunade sighed. "We've found someone who's bone marrow is a close match to yours but he needs to come in for testing before we can harvest any of the donor's marrow and prep you for the transplant."

"Okay…? Is there a catch or something, I don't understand." He attempted to articulate. They weren't telling him something. That much was apparent.

Shizune clasped her hands together and held them in front of her waist. "We can't proceed if we can't get into contact with the donor."

"I-I'm sorry. I still don't understand what you're saying. How long do I have before we need to do the transplant?"

"It's better we do it sooner than later to prevent the cancer from spreading…" Shizune replied.

"Okay. Who's the donor? Can you tell me their name?"

Shizune looked to Tsunade he looked down at her clipboard. "Kisame Hoshigaki. His name is on your list of approved visitors and I see you added him as one of your contacts should anything go wrong. Your chart also says that he agreed to have his bone marrow tested on Wednesday and proved to be a close enough candidate for transplant."

"We tried to call him as soon as we had the results of the testing but he won't pick up the phone." Shizune explained.

_Kisame Hoshigaki._ As soon as Tsunade spoke Kisame's name Itachi stopped listening to the rest. Kisame's bone marrow was a close enough match for transplantation. And if he didn't go through with the transplant soon… "What does he need to do if I get into contact with him?"

Tsunade held Itachi's chart against her sizeable bust – an unmistakable feature of hers – and said "We'll have to explain what he needs to do before the transplant can occur and prescribe some medications for him to take beforehand to ensure that everything goes smoothly. Do you think you can reach him? We've tried all morning and haven't heard anything back."

Itachi lowered his head and clutched the bedsheets. "He might be at work." He whispered. _At least_ _I _hope_ he's at work._

"We're sorry to ask this of you but we've been trying all morning and we haven't heard anything back from the National Bone Marrow Registry yet so Kisame Hoshigaki is our best bet at the moment." Shizune reiterated.

"I'll call him." Itachi decided.

Shizune quickly nodded and looked to Tsunade who stared at him at length. "Very well." Tsunade permitted. "Shizune and I will excuse ourselves while you contact him to give you some privacy. When you reach him, ask him to visit the hospital as soon as he can so we can proceed with the transplantation procedure. Alright?"

"I will, thank you." Itachi answered and picked up the phone.

"Let's go, Shizune." Tsunade ordered and placed Itachi's chart at the foot of the bed.

"Coming!"

By the time the two had exited the room, Itachi already had the hospital phone pressed to his ear. _Come on Kisame, please pick up. _After every unanswered dial tone Tsunade's footsteps grew fainter and fainter until he could no longer hear them. "You have reached the voice mailbox of…" the answering machine recited in his ear.

"Kisame, it's me." He spoke into the receiver. "Call me back as soon as you have the chance; it's of utmost importance."

With a heavy sigh, he hung up the phone. How many times had Itachi asked Kisame to drive all the way up to the hospital to discuss something because it was of "utmost importance?" At any rate, it would be a few hours before he heard anything back from the man because Kisame never answered any of Itachi's calls the first time he called him. Half of the time it was because he was at work. In instances such as these, Itachi would call not knowing Kisame's work schedule and leave a message and would wait for him to call back at the end of his shift.

The other half of the time Kisame was afraid to answer due to the nature of Itachi's calls. Most often, Itachi would ask to meet here in the hospital to discuss the nature of an argument or altercation between him and his younger brother. In which case, Kisame would put off calling Itachi back in fear of Itachi evicting him from his apartment.

In every case, however, Kisame would always either return the call (albeit several hours later) or would make a personal appearance at the hospital later that day or the next day.

But Itachi didn't have time to wait for him to call back or make an appearance. He needed to talk to Kisame _right now._

_"We've tried all morning and haven't heard anything back." _Tsunade told him.

_He might have been at work then. But he should be back now, right? _Itachi tried to rationalize. _It depends when they tried to call. He could have just started his shift which means it'll be a few hours before I can expect a call back or he could be in the middle of a shift which means it'll only be an hour or more until he notices their calls…_

_...unless he took the graveyard shift at the convenience store last night._ Itachi took a deep breath and closed his eyes to calm his racing heart. _If that's the case, he could be asleep on the couch back home._

Opening his eyes, he picked up the phone and dialed Sasuke's number. But at 12:25pm his chances of reaching Sasuke were no better than his chances of reaching Kisame as it was lunch time and both his roommate and his brother worked in the food industry. _Sasuke could be at the restaurant right now…_

_"Hello?"_ Sasuke hissed into the phone.

"Are you at work?" Itachi asked.

_"No, I'm at home, why? What's wrong?"_ Sasuke asked him.

"Is Kisame there?"

Sasuke groaned. _"He just left, why?"_

Itachi's heart sank. "He just left? When?"

_"Just now, why?"_

This time it was Itachi who groaned into the phone as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

_"What's wrong? Is everything okay? Itachi? Itachi! Talk to me! Why do you need to know where he is—"_

"Find him." Itachi commanded.

_"What? Why?"_

"Go. Find. Him. Right. Now."

_"I don't know where he went! He literally just left so how am I—"_

"Grab your keys and your wallet and go find him. Use the stairs if that's what it'll take for you to beat the elevator and look for him in the lobby. Go out onto the street and look for him. He doesn't own a car so he can't have made it very far."

_"Itachi, slow down. Why do you need to know where he is? Can't you just call him?"_ Sasuke asked.

"Do you have your keys and your wallet yet because the hospital has tried to reach him all morning with no answer and I called him ten minutes ago and you're the last person to have seen him so you have the best chance of finding him."

_"Yes, I have my wallet and keys, darn it! I just left the apartment a few seconds ago and I'm taking the elevator to the lobby because in case you've forgotten you live on the eleventh story!"_

"You know what? I can deal without your sarcasm Sasuke, so for once would you shut up and do what I'm asking of you? Please." He said and rubbed his eyes.

_"I'm going, I'm going! But I'm taking the elevator!"_

"I don't care what you do so long as you find him."

"Alright! Alright! I'm going I'm going! But can you tell me why it's suddenly so important to find him? Did he steal something? Did he break a law or something? Why is it so important to find this guy, Ita—"

"Kisame's a match."

_"Kisame's a what?"_

"Kisame's bone marrow is a match."

_"Are you…? Are you kidding me?"_

"I'm dead serious which is why I need you to find him."

* * *

**A quick skimming of this story's reviews tells me that Dragon77 wanted Kisame to be a match for Itachi (not the rest of you weren't hoping the same thing~) Originally I wasn't going to make Kisame a match but then I decided "ah what the hell?" Why not? And so now he is.**

**If they can find him that is~**

**Whelp! Until next time!**

**Sasori33-001**


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